Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Some Things from School I'll Never Forget


No particular order to these memories, but there are some choice things I suppose will stay with me forever:

First grade. MF sits in the row beside me in class. One afternoon during 'art,' M carefully colors each of his teeth a different color from his box of crayons as I watch, fascinated. When finished, he sighs with contentment, and flashes a wide grin, revealing a rainbow-colored mouth. I could never figure out, all through first to fifth grade, whether MF was brilliant or a complete idiot. I tend towards the latter.

Second grade: Dad drives us to school every morning (my brother is a year and a half older). This day as I exit the car, I detect an immediate breeze. I realize I've forgotten my underwear! As I am in a dress as usual, this is a problem, particularly during recess when I usually climb the monkey-bars. I sit back in the car. Dad looks at me quizzically. When I tell him what I've forgotten, to his credit, he laughs and we head back home.

Third grade. A boy throws up his lunch immediately after recess, and is forever branded with the nickname "Earp," which follows him through grade school. Today he is a writer, but unfortunately for him, I can't forget the nickname or how he came to acquire it.

Fourth grade. The school nurse asks me what's wrong, and when I tell her "I dunno, I just feel crummy," she dissolves in fits of laughter.

Fifth grade. Weeks are spent on the playground playing Lost in Space. We enact the episodes we watch that week. I am always elected to play 'Penny,' because of my long brown hair.

Eight grade. When I tell mom a boy in my class is named Ronny Hinckleheimer, she makes me swear I am not making it up (I am prone to flights of imagination). She does the same thing a few years later when I tell her about Herron Higgenbotham.

The games we played in our neighborhood were epic. It was a golden age, and the entire block was filled with a tribe of kids roughly the same age. Hide & Go Seek is played with all the seriousness of War Games.  This afternoon, I am a half-block from 'safe' and the opposing team is closing in. I jump into the back of a laundry truck making deliveries and order the startled driver when he returns from the house, to drive me down the street as I dive under a load of laundry bags. For some reason, without saying a word, he does this, delivering me right up to the designated safe point. The other kids can't figure out how I eluded capture.

What, you thought I was going to talk about school subjects?!

14 comments:

Ms. A said...

At least you still have memories, I think I've forgotten all of mine!

Chris said...

I saw MF not too long ago. I agree with your assessment. I'm not even going to respond to the underwear thing.

ReformingGeek said...

Yeah, back then, girls wore underwear under their dresses. :)

I love your memories. Rainbow-teeth. Hum.....

I remember one game with a bunch of kids. It was some kind of party or neighborhood gathering in a different neighborhood close to ours. I remember being told to follow this one girl around over and over again while she chanted "Follow me. Follow me." Ugh. I was naive but I finally grew tired of that charade. I think I soon begged Mom to take me home.

Ami said...

I have some interesting memories of things like that, too.

::making note to self to blog about some:::

I liked the 'oops I forgot my underwear' moment. Made me laugh.

Peruby said...

OMG! I laughed so hard! My cheeks are starting to hurt.

I am so glad you jumped into a laundry truck and not a diaper service truck.

LOL!

Peruby said...

Oh frack! I am still laughing. I couldn't even go on to my next blog reading.

The "earp" reminds me of me and my daughter. We make fun of each other "after" we throw up at the noises we make.

I am sure "earp" was the sound he made when he barfed. My daughter does the same thing.

I have to stop now. I am still laughing so hard I think I am going to throw up my coffee!

EARP!

Dame Nuisance said...

When Darling Daughter was little, we used to refer to the spit-up after a feeding as 'urp' and made sure we always had an 'urp' cloth handy. I prefer the 'urp' spelling to the 'Earp' spelling since the latter makes me think of Wyatt Earp. Wouldn't want the ghost of Doc Holliday to pay me a visit ...

raydenzel1 said...

Thanks for sharing some fun memories. Wanna go for a ride? ;-)

ray

McVal said...

lol! Loved your memories! I am one that barfed up in front of EVERYONE while lined up for the school bus after school one day. I remember one older girl saying, "I can't believe so much came out of such a little girl!"
The principal drove me home in his little green VW Bug instead of me having to ride home on the bus...

McVal said...

BTW: Thanks for stopping by!

Pearl said...

A boy in my first grade class took his milk only after it had sat on the radiator and warmed up. :-( To this day, I don't want milk...

Pearl

Sultan said...

Lost in Space was a favored show when I was a boy. I saw it again on local tv here recently and it turns out that it was in fact a truly terrible program. Who knew?

Sally Wessely said...

These were great memories. I loved reading about them. I especially liked the story about the ride in the laundry truck. My cousin and I used to play kick the can with our younger siblings and younger neighbors, but we would ditch them quickly, run to the drugstore, buy a cherry coke, and sit on the stools laughing because we knew they were looking all over the neighborhood for us.

Moving with Mitchell said...

What a joy these memories are. Poor Earp! I think MF was brilliant. My father claimed to have a friend named Oscar Dinglehoffer. It was a lie. But truth is stranger than fiction. He did have a friend with the last name Kushlowitz who married a woman with the last name Katzenbogen.