On the playground, Martha Farnum Elementary School kids used to call themselves “toads” and their rivals in La Jolla “snobs.” The playground slang is one of the childhood memories a small group of Pacific Beach residents recalled at a recent meeting of the newly formed Pacific Beach nostalgia group called You Know You’re from Pacific Beach When … Farnum Elementary was the topic for the evening, although some of the participants went to Kate Sessions Elementary School. The meeting took place at the Pacific Beach/Taylor Branch Library on Cass Street, where the school actually stood from 1953 to 1983. After that, Mission Bay Montessori took it over for two years. The building was razed in 1996 and replaced by the neighborhood library the following year. As the members of YKYFPBW chatted about old times with former Farnum third- and fourth-grade teacher Avis Kay, they passed around class photos. “There’s the kid from France,” said group organizer and former Farnum student Keith Antigiovanni. “He knew all the curse words but he didn’t know what they meant.” There was another photo of a now-mustachioed John Polhamus (then sans facial hair) in Kay’s fourth-grade class. The two hadn’t seen each other since he graduated. Polhamus, a Pacific Beach native, told her he had lived in London for 10 years and was on the West End stage. “But I wasn’t famous or anything,” he said. Antigiovanni, who lives in Pacific Beach and spearheaded the discussion, also was “Miss Kay’s” student in “Room 9.” “One time, I had a bloody nose in your class and I went to the coat room for paper towels and no one knew,” he admitted to her. Antigiovanni remembers “Miss Kay” as “very regimented.” He said she taught in one pair of shoes and changed to another for physical education. “She turned into another person,” he said. Otto Emme, who also attended the meeting, went to Kate Sessions Elementary. But he said he retains bragging rights because he was born and raised in Pacific Beach. The purpose of the group, which started on Facebook, is “to create an awareness of PB history and nostalgia from the 1940s to today,” said Antigiovanni. “We’re trying to bring the community together so people don’t feel so isolated.” He said it will probably meet quarterly to discuss different topics, which will be posted on Facebook. The community is invited. For details, just type in “You Know You’re from Pacific Beach When” on Facebook. In the 1950s, group members recalled, Farnum was one of five elementary schools that catered to the post-war baby boomers in the beach area. Antigiovanni’s handout shows that the year Farnum opened, Dwight D. Eisenhower was in his first term as president, Goodwin Knight was the governor of California, John Butler was mayor of San Diego and the Padres of the Pacific Coast League played at Lane Field at the harbor. “I was in sixth grade when Kennedy was shot,” said group member Vicki Allen, who attended Kate Sessions. Antigiovanni responded. “I wasn’t born yet,” said Antigiovanni, who was in fourth grade when the school closed. “I remember some kids cried [when Farnum was shuttered].” Kay said she can’t recall how the Kennedy assassination affected her classroom activities. She can, however, name all the principals she worked with while there. “I was a teacher for 40 years, 23 of them at Farnum,” she said. “Farnum was a wonderful school and the people were great.” For details on the next meeting of the nostalgia group, check Facebook.