bironic

Last day. *sniff* Suddenly I am assaulted with ideas for memories, and room for only one of them. Let’s go back to the beginning. Or one of many beginnings.

31. Pre-school, Kindergarten, possibly Elementary School

( Early reading memories, and a bonus photograph. )

And... there we have it. One month; 31 top-level memories and many, many more in comments. Stay tuned--the post-mortem is coming up this weekend.

I felt happy and otherwise emotionally sturdy enough today to look through some photo albums from when I was a baby up through about age 11. I remembered most of the pictures, but they still sparked fresh recollections. Even the smell of the plastic pages brought back memories.

27. Pre-school

( My dad thinks I went to the funeral, but I don't remember it at all. )


28. Elementary School

( TMI time! )


29. Middle School

Two domesticated rodent-related memories. Consider it penance for skipping a few days here.

( Never turn your back on a guinea pig. )

( Warning for a little bit of blooooood. )

Horror of horrors, I have not written any classroom-related memories except that one about the spelling word mispronunciation when we were eight years old. And school has been possibly the largest shaping force in my life other than my parents. For shame!


25. High School

(  It's a strange thing, this combination of egotism and insecurity: to hide intelligence because of the fear of other students shunning you, yet wanting the teacher to know that you know what you know, while also desperately afraid you'll be exposed at any moment as knowing less than you seem to—simultaneously believing you're smarter than most of them and also ignorant in the larger scheme of things. )


Hey. Anyone have any requests or prompts for the remaining few memories?

23. Elementary School

( It may have been the next day that R. taught me how to 'pump' your legs on a swing instead of needing someone to push you. )

We went stargazing tonight at a small observatory about 60 miles east of here, almost at the end of the north fork of Long Island. After a nice 90-minute lecture on naked-eye astronomy from a local university professor, we went out into the bitter, windy cold so one of the employees could point out the easier constellations and show us some astrophotography in progress. Then we hiked up into their bigger telescope, through which we saw a wavering Saturn (too much disturbance to make out the rings clearly) and the wispy M42 nebula in Orion. The skies were so clear -- cloudless and cold, and with the hour and a half's drive from home came a striking drop in light pollution. Lovely.

Tonight's memory has only the most tangential relation to all of that. We already covered stargazing a couple of days ago. :)


21. Middle School

( I didn't really know him then, but he was best friends with the boy I ended up dating, and we still keep in touch today. )

WTF

19. Elementary School and earlier

( Tricks of scent-memory. )

I have read all of your lovely memories as well as your conversations about vision quality and blurry monitors -- thank you, again, for sharing and chatting and generally making life that much cheerier, informative and interesting. I hope no-one is put off when it takes me a while to reply.

And now I shall solicit more comments. More! More, I say!


17. Elementary School

( As if it were another ecosystem in the same suburban town. )

WTF

15. Elementary School

( Imprint or coincidence? Jury's still out. )

WTF

12. Pre-school

( Making ghosts of ourselves and watching them fade. )

WTF