Return of Memoryfest - Day 2/31

[bironic]

2. Elementary School

At one of my birthday parties in the backyard of our old house (we moved a few months after I turned nine, so I was younger than that), I ran into my dad's friend/mentor Nick, a million miles tall. He asked how tall I was. I had probably just visited the doctor, because I answered in inches. Nick laughed and teased me about being forty-something feet tall, lifting his hand high over his head towards the sky.


About the Memoryfest

Comments

[nicocoer.livejournal.com]

In 3rd Grade, My best friend was the daughter of illegal immigrants, and her name was Mallory Garcia. She lies across the street from another hispanic family, and my brother got a thing of X-men cards that I charish to this day.

~N~

[stephantom.livejournal.com]

On the first day of 1st grade, I was at a new school - the public elementary school (before that, I went to a catholic kindergarten), I remember sitting on the schoolbus, leaning my head against the glass and looking at the building as we pulled up against the curb. I was a big Elton John fan at the time and in my head I was hearing "Your Song" (you know the one, right?) and I actually said out loud to myself, (very quietly), "Well song, it's just you and me."

[thewlisian-afer.livejournal.com]

...That might need to be used in a story some day.

[stephantom.livejournal.com]

Hehe. I think I was probably thinking that myself on some level at the time - you know, like those moments when you act like you're in a movie or something, when really, it's just you. Or maybe I was just a sincerely weird little kid, lol. But if you'd like a character to do that, then by all means. :)

[(Anonymous)]

If you were a weird little kid, then at least you weren't alone. I did stuff like that, too. I went through a period of probably a year and a half where I third-person-narrated my entire life in my head. XD

[bironic.livejournal.com]

A pretty precocious thought for a five- or six-year-old. I like it, and I like the image.

[topaz-eyes.livejournal.com]

To get to our elementary school we had to climb up a long hill. Normally we were supposed to use the sidewalk, which ran along a busy street. The side of the hill was completely wooded, and steep, but there were dirt paths cut all along the side of the hill for shortcuts up to the field. At the time the schoolyard wasn't fenced off.

In winter these paths would be covered with snow and we'd slide down the paths on our butts on our way home as impromptu toboggans. One day one of these paths was particularly icy and fast, I was sliding, and missed a corner. I reached out and grabbed a small sapling just before I pitched down the side of the hill and to the busy street below.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

So what you're saying is, you used to have to walk to school uphill both ways in the snow. *g*

The tobogganless tobogganing sounds scary and fun. Were you frightened that particular day or did the significance of what could have happened hit you later?

[topaz-eyes.livejournal.com]

So what you're saying is, you used to have to walk to school uphill both ways in the snow. *g*

Yes. Yes I did. And twice on Sundays. :-P

I was momentarily terrified, but I pulled myself up and back onto the trail and continued on my merry way. Of course, now I realize how naive and stupid it was. Now, the hill's all fenced off. Ah, the good old days...

[daasgrrl.livejournal.com]

Hey, that's not fair! He didn't specify *g*.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

My thoughts exactly! But it's hard to articulate that when you're a kid. I probably blushed, laughed and protested with one of those drawn-out "Noooo"s.

[elynittria.livejournal.com]

It's interesting how perspectives change as we grow: what seemed "a million miles tall" to you back then would probably seem quite ordinary—or even short—to you now.

My memory for the day is posted over at my journal again (I hope people don't mind: LJ has eaten so many of my comments in the past that I'm leery of writing anything that might take a while to compose in them.) Please note that the link is friends locked, since it's a bit personal. Stuffed animal memory (http://elynittria.livejournal.com/17481.html#cutid1)

[thewlisian-afer.livejournal.com]

It's interesting how perspectives change as we grow: what seemed "a million miles tall" to you back then would probably seem quite ordinary—or even short—to you now.

When I was about seven years old I had a teacher who was very thin and, I thought, very tall. Years later when I was in high school and I went back to the elementary school for a visit, I discovered that she was actually completely average-sized in height and I'd just been fooled into thinking she was very tall because she was also very thin and thanks to my family I'm more accustomed to people whose girth is closer to their height than hers was. XD

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Absolutely. It's like going back to a place you haven't been since you were a kid, like elementary school, and discovering that what used to be high up or long or tall is, like you say, average or even scaled-down for children.

In my own defense here, though, Nick was a huge man. He used to have to duck a little when walking through doorways. I'd probably be impressed with his height if I saw him now -- just imagine craning your neck to look at him when you're four feet tall.

Amblin' over to see your memory.

[ryokophoenix.livejournal.com]

*waves* Hi! I want to join. :P I've decided to go with memories that are triggered by yours - that way I might recall moments and details I'd have otherwise forgotten.

When I was in Year 5, I was extremely short. I was also extremely short in nearly every other year as well, but that's beside the point. In this year I temporarily had a substitute teacher - a ridiculously tall substitute teacher.

Let me tell you, bolting around a corner and running face first into a stranger's groin is only entertaining to the bystanders.

:)

[bironic.livejournal.com]

And to people reading about it years afterward. :)

Wilkommen! I'm excited to hear lots more about you. 'Specially if it's embarrassing.

[thewlisian-afer.livejournal.com]

When I was in second grade there was a girl in my class named Megan who I thought was really really cute. I desperately wanted to impress her and make her like me so I started trying to come up with nice things I could do for her. I'm not sure how, but it came to my attention that she still couldn't read and nothing the teachers were doing was working. Since nobody can remember a time when I couldn't read (I already knew how when I started speaking [in full sentences] at age three) I offered to help her learn.

I did manage to teach Megan how to read but, alas, prepubescent romance did not blossom. We stayed friends, though! She's now married and has a baby and we still see each other from time to time. And when she introduces me to people she still proudly announces that she learned to read because of me.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

That's really sweet. And may support an argument about class size and the limit of teachers' abilities, since your one-on-one peer tutoring did the trick certified adults couldn't manage.

And why am I not surprised that you started reading and speaking in full sentences so young?

[thewlisian-afer.livejournal.com]

And why am I not surprised that you started reading and speaking in full sentences so young?

Because I'm kinda weird like that. :D People actually thought I was autistic for a while. I was big on repetitive behavior -- rocking myself, lining things up, etc. I didn't make eye contact or respond properly to noises around me. And I had colic but when I wasn't crying over that I was extremely quiet. Then all of the sudden I just ... spoke. We were in the car driving somewhere and I pointed at a billboard and said, "Look, it's a sign for Curtis Lumber." :: palms up ::

I still haven't outgrown the rocking thing. I make eye contact now but it takes a little thought and effort. So while nobody's tossing the term "autism" at me anymore, people still wonder if I've maybe got a mild case of Asperger's syndrome. Just what I need -- another 'syndrome' or 'disorder' label. haha Oh, well. At least I'd be in pretty good company with this one.

[nightdog-barks.livejournal.com]

My first-grade teacher was named Mrs. Nelson (as all teachers, at least in elementary school, have the first name Mr., Miss, or Mrs.) and she had red hair.

She was the first person I'd ever seen who had red hair.

Not a very interesting memory this time, but there it is.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

*g* Mine was named Mrs. Cardinal and she did not have red hair.

Hey, I think it's interesting. You probably think of her sometimes when you see redheads. And anyway, a memory doesn't have to be interesting for this little project -- it just has to be a memory.

[roga.livejournal.com]

My parents always seemed huge when I was a little girl, but I always assumed that when I grew up I'd be as tall as they were - well, at least as tall as my mother, if not surpass her. One day in high school I invited a friend over to study. It was his first time visiting, and after he saw my mom he absently noted, "Wow, your mom's really tall."

That was the moment I realized that my mom really was exceptionally tall, and seeing as I hadn't grown a centimeter in the previous year, I would probably never be as tall as she is.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

That's funny -- a twist on a child's perspective that everything is tall and your parents are the standard of comparison, not necessarily that your parents are exceptional -- and also sad in the way all "I'll never"s are sad.

[mer-duff.livejournal.com]

I went to a small primary school - K-4 only - with a very small library. It was in the centre of the school and shaped like a cylinder - there were shelves on the outside and a small area inside where you checked out the books. I was small as well, and my favourite place to wait for my mother (who taught at the school) was curled up in one of the book return shelves, reading.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

That's adorable. I wish I knew what you looked like so I could imagine a mini-you in that scene.

[mer-duff.livejournal.com]

Nothing like that icon *grins*

In what may be the defining picture from my childhood, my mother has managed to get me into a dress, but I've tucked it between my legs to simulate shorts. And she lost on the dirty tennis shoes. Both knees are scabbed and my bangs are self-cut in a lovely jagged line across my forehead. Most people who know me would suggest that my "style" hasn't improved much.

[thewlisian-afer.livejournal.com]

Aww, this makes me want to drag out pictures from when I was young and go through them to find some of the ones of me curled up in my bookshelves reading so I can scan and post them! ♥

[silsbee329.livejournal.com]

In elementary school I had a Bee Gees lunch box. I loved it, but the thermos often leaked and got the rest of my lunch all wet. I was a pretty big weeper in those days, and one day I started crying over my wet lunch. The teacher, Mrs. C., made me lay in the middle of the carpet with all of the other kids in a circle around me, watching me cry. I swear, that woman was evil. Scary, too - she used to wear her hair in a bun, with pencils and chopsticks and other random things stuck in it.

I did not like elementary school. :(

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Oh dear, that is a terrible thing to do to a child. It's traumatic enough to be crying in the first place.

On a lighter note, you've reminded me that my Care Bears thermos used to leak apple juice sometimes and make everything in the lunch box sticky and smell of apples.

[silsbee329.livejournal.com]

Aww, Care Bears! Character lunch boxes were one of the better things about school. :)

[thewlisian-afer.livejournal.com]

:( What an awful teacher. I remember when I was in kindergarten I was terrified of my teacher because once a boy called Darren kicked another kid and the teacher grabbed him by the shoulder to hold him still, gave him a swift kick in the butt and shouted, "How do you like it?" OMG. I was traumatized.

[silsbee329.livejournal.com]

Oh, man... Mean, scary teachers are the worst.

[thewlisian-afer.livejournal.com]

She was a scary, scary lady. She had slightly frizzy hair and her eyes bugged out a little even when she was calm and her nose was kind of hook-ish. A witch hat would not look out of place on her head. (And no, this isn't just a little kid's interpretation -- I've seen her fairly recently and she really is a scary-looking woman. XD)

here you go

[synn.livejournal.com]

http://synn.livejournal.com/200953.html

I tried to go back and see what I'd posted last year b/c I don't remember (haha) but all of the 'link' comments I put on your orig. posts are gone : (
Oh well.

My memory is friends locked

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Like I just said over at your place, the links are still up over here (http://bironic.livejournal.com/9967.html). I think that was the only day you posted. I'm so happy you thought of something to post today. *hug*

P.S. Alex was just over, sad about breaking up with bf, so we watched some House: "Mob Rules" (with the mobster...obviously) and "Love Hurts" (with the dominatrix). I'd say you should have been here, but at least this way you were spared the complaining.

[crazypalefreak.livejournal.com]

I love memories like this. I love remembering exactly what someone else said or did, when they probably have no memory of it themselves. It makes me feel that I have a part in the recording of a person's history. And it makes me wonder how much of my life is only remembered by others.

[kabal42.livejournal.com]

At my eleventh birthday I had most of my class over. We went for a walk around dusk (my birthday is 10th May, so it was fairly late) and laughed and sang. It was one of my happies days ever. And two months later we moved away and I was never that happy again until I was grown up.