The last year of Elementary school was interesting to say the least. I had Mrs. Meyers, and she was an odd bird. Her husband died during the year, so maybe the weirdness can be attributed to grief for loosing her husband. I also had History with Mrs. Jenkins, so we could get used to switching classes as we would do in Middle School the following year. I always liked Mrs. Jenkins, but I was a little scared of her at the same time.
She was a very stern black woman with a firm grasp on history. I learned a lot, and had fun working on projects that inspired my creativity. Karen was in her class, and said she was just as smart in all subjects as in history. I remember thinking I got off easy by having Mrs. Meyers as my teacher.
This year I decided I was too grown up to be in Brownies, and I didn't join. A lot of girls quit this year too, and we didn't miss it, even though we had a fun time while it lasted. Not going gave me more time to play with friends and just mess around, so I didn't feel like I was missing anything.
We also got to try out a musical instrument this year. I decided on the Viola, and had tons of fun learning how to play. I didn't do much practicing, but I was a natural, so I could get away with it. I don't remember who my teacher was, but I can still remember the songs we learned and can't help but sing "Go tell Aunt Rhody" when "Lord Dismiss us with thy Blessing" is played in church.
Fifth Graders got to go on a week long camp-out with a different school. We were in cabins, and got to participate in all kinds of activities. We played games, and had an all around good time. There was some game that involved us running around an old fashioned town, and I ended up getting locked in jail. It was pretty cold outside, so I didn't mind so much not being back out in the elements. There was a hay ride on which I was introduced to Queen. I learned "We Will Rock You" and "We are the Champions". I must admit my life has never been the same since.
Chrissi Newell was in my class this year, and we had a ton of fun! I would go home with her, or ride my bike over on a Saturday. One Saturday in particular I had ridden over, and left when it was time to go home. I got turned around and couldn't find my way back! I became really scared when the sky got dark, it became really windy and the tornado alerts went off! I was so scared I would be blown away like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, but fortunately I made it home safely.
We again had "The Change of Life" class in fifth grade, but we were taught not only about the changes in ourselves, but also about the changes that were taking place in the boys our age. The boys also got a class, after which Jamie Bogurelli exclaimed "I know about you!" when Missy Hogan asked what he was talking about he pulled out his pamphlet and pointed to a picture of a uterus. Sometimes I wonder if fifth grade is a little early to teach about these things!
My friend Kim Wofile planned a really cool birthday party this year. She was born around Halloween, so it had a halloween-is theme to it. Kim lived a few houses down from the Poulsons, and traveled to our school for some special education program we had. Everything went great until she pulled out the scary movie she had rented for us to watch. Although I can't remember what it was, I remember it was rated R.
I knew I shouldn't watch the movie but I didn't have the guts to ask them to put something else on. I ended up sneaking out of the house and heading over to the Poulsons so I could use their phone to call my parents for an early ride home. I was so embarrassed to have to leave early, but I don't think anyone noticed. Although I didn't have the courage to stand up for myself, I'm glad I was able to walk away. That situation gave me the confidence to decline R rated movies for my whole life.
I was a Merry Miss during 5th grade, and had Sister Middleton as my teacher. She was a sweet lady that lived a few streets over and never had any girls (just two boys). So the 22 girls she was given became the girls she never had. Each of us were convinced we were her favorite. She would take us out for ice cream, or stop by and visit with us. I have great memories of sleepovers at her house with Katie MacIntosh, Tanya Moe, Natalie Morris, and Tiffany Welch. Of course everyone from our class was there, but these are the girls that I spent most of my time with.
We would start by working on our Gospel in Action award, then we would have some pizza and watch a movie. Sister Middleton would stock the place with candy, sodas and all kinds of junk food. One sleepover Tania, Katie and I ate a whole 5 lb licorice jar full between the three of us. We had all kinds of fun at these activities.
Tiffany Welch convinced us at one to make a Ouija board and to ask it questions. The board didn't do anything, but when Sister Middleton walked in and she found out what we were doing, she explained to us that Ouija boards were summoning evil spirits and that we should never do it. She told us a scary story about how she and a friend had played with one when she was young, and that someone ended up getting hurt really bad. It scared us all enough to never want to play with one again.
We had a Fifth Grade graduation celebration party one of our last days of school. It involved a ceremony that the parents were invited to, games, and a lunch. My Dad noticed after leaving the ceremony that everyone was being handed a can of Coke for the lunch. Since we've never drank caffeine in my family he went out and purchased a Sprite for me to drink instead. When he came into the cafeteria with the Sprite I was ashamed to have already tried a sip of Coke. Fortunately I thought it was awful, and have never since drank Coke. At the time I didn't really understand what the big deal was, but after knowing several people that were addicted to the stuff, I'm glad one sip is all I've taken.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Monday, November 8, 2010
Fourth Grade
Fourth Grade was such a rough year for me! I was in Mr. Schmidle's class and seemed to butt heads at least on a weekly basis. Mr. Schmidle also worked as a police officer at night time, so he ran a tight ship. He brought in his uniform to show us so we could know exactly what a police uniform looked like, which was pretty cool to see up close.
The best part about that year was the wall of books on the left side of the class room. Mr. Schmidle had everything on that shelf from Ramona Quimby Age 8 to Tales of the Fourth Grade Nothing and Matilda. We could pick one to read during silent reading time, or Mr. Schmidle would pick out one to read to the class. We loved class reading time, because he did all the voices of all the characters differently. He had a way of roping you into the reading so you couldn't help but want to find out what was happening next.
One day when a classmate was being particular obnoxious and disruptive (refused to stay in his seat) Mr. Schmittle pulled the boy's chair over to the metal book shelf and handcuffed him to it. The boy had remain there until lunch. Most of the class was scared of Mr. Schmidle after that, and I was one of them.
This was also the year of my first crush. We sat in alphabetic order and a few desks over was Michael Ciezlack. He had an identical twin brother named RJ, but to me he wasn't half as cute as his brother. I didn't really talk to Michael much, and he probably had no idea I liked him, but I was infatuated with him the entire year. He played basket ball in the community league with his brother and best friend Chris Ciezki. His father was a volunteer fireman at night time and I thought that was pretty cool too.
Karen also had a crush this year (although in her case she claimed she was madly in love). She was Tony Fisher's girlfriend and they ended up getting married at recess one day. It was back in the woods behind the school were we weren't aloud to go, so I didn't attend although she wanted me to be the maid of honor. It was devastating to miss, but I didn't want to break the rules and get in trouble. They got divorced a week later, so I figured it was for the best that I didn't break the rules after all.
This year for music class we all got to learn how to play the recorder. Since I already had one (a Christmas gift one year), I got to bring in my bright yellow one, instead of having to use the black and white ones you could buy from the school. I thought my recorder was the coolest and loved that it was different than everyone else's. I wasn't very good at it, but I thought the recorder was a fun change from having to sing. One week it went missing, and although I searched my room and the house I couldn't find it. Mr. Schmittle made me write sentences on the black board "I will not forget my recorder" 100 times while the class went to the music lessons.
I couldn't find the recorder again the next week, so again I was writing sentences while the class went to lessons. After the third week my parents decided it must truly be lost, and they ended up buying me a new one. So I finally could go to music classes agin! Several months later I magically found the recorder in the laundry closet (I think one of my sisters took it and hid it from me). So at that point I got to choose which recorder to use.
I ended up writing sentences pretty frequently, since I was an awful speller. I practically failed my tests each week regardless of how hard I studied. Later in life I realized I'm probably a little dyslexic, which I'm sure didn't help at all. To this day I still have to stop and think when I spell sycamore or special (not hard words, but I always superimpose the letters). I should probably get tested, but at this point in life I'm not sure there's a whole lot they can do for me.
Mr. Schmidle asked me to sit beside Elizabeth Reilly to help her focus in class. Her parents were getting a divorce, and she was having such a hard time doing well in school. She was one of the popular girls, and had a ton of fun, but it was hard to try to help her. We became friends and it became even harder to get her to focus. Eventually Elizabeth was so distracting to my school work, that we were moved apart so I could better focus on class and not chat during school.
Fourth Grade was the year we had "The Change of Life" class. Although I remember learning all about periods when Elise Walri went through this class, and again in great detail when we had this lesson in school, I never remember my mom talking to me about periods. I felt so grown up after learning about the changes we would soon be going through, that Karen and I decided we should probably start wearing pads just in case we started our periods. This was quickly put to an end when Karen's mom found herself running out of pads at an unusually quick rate.
Around this time I also got pretty devious! Sheila and I were sharing a room, and I would make up all kind of crap to tell her. I had her convinced we had a year supply of dehydrated water, I told her our bedroom really belonged to me and she had to ask permission to come in. To this day Sheila will ask me "Do you remember when you told me xxxxx? I just realized that wasn't true!"
But she did her fair share of annoying me right back. Sunday mornings she would wait until I got dressed and she would put on the closest thing she had to my outfit so we would match. If I then changed, she would also change to match. It was so frustrating! She would constantly steal my toys and clothing, eat my candy she was the epitome of younger sister. Sometimes we would play together without any problems, but we did an awful lot of fighting.
The best part about that year was the wall of books on the left side of the class room. Mr. Schmidle had everything on that shelf from Ramona Quimby Age 8 to Tales of the Fourth Grade Nothing and Matilda. We could pick one to read during silent reading time, or Mr. Schmidle would pick out one to read to the class. We loved class reading time, because he did all the voices of all the characters differently. He had a way of roping you into the reading so you couldn't help but want to find out what was happening next.
One day when a classmate was being particular obnoxious and disruptive (refused to stay in his seat) Mr. Schmittle pulled the boy's chair over to the metal book shelf and handcuffed him to it. The boy had remain there until lunch. Most of the class was scared of Mr. Schmidle after that, and I was one of them.
This was also the year of my first crush. We sat in alphabetic order and a few desks over was Michael Ciezlack. He had an identical twin brother named RJ, but to me he wasn't half as cute as his brother. I didn't really talk to Michael much, and he probably had no idea I liked him, but I was infatuated with him the entire year. He played basket ball in the community league with his brother and best friend Chris Ciezki. His father was a volunteer fireman at night time and I thought that was pretty cool too.
Karen also had a crush this year (although in her case she claimed she was madly in love). She was Tony Fisher's girlfriend and they ended up getting married at recess one day. It was back in the woods behind the school were we weren't aloud to go, so I didn't attend although she wanted me to be the maid of honor. It was devastating to miss, but I didn't want to break the rules and get in trouble. They got divorced a week later, so I figured it was for the best that I didn't break the rules after all.
This year for music class we all got to learn how to play the recorder. Since I already had one (a Christmas gift one year), I got to bring in my bright yellow one, instead of having to use the black and white ones you could buy from the school. I thought my recorder was the coolest and loved that it was different than everyone else's. I wasn't very good at it, but I thought the recorder was a fun change from having to sing. One week it went missing, and although I searched my room and the house I couldn't find it. Mr. Schmittle made me write sentences on the black board "I will not forget my recorder" 100 times while the class went to the music lessons.
I couldn't find the recorder again the next week, so again I was writing sentences while the class went to lessons. After the third week my parents decided it must truly be lost, and they ended up buying me a new one. So I finally could go to music classes agin! Several months later I magically found the recorder in the laundry closet (I think one of my sisters took it and hid it from me). So at that point I got to choose which recorder to use.
I ended up writing sentences pretty frequently, since I was an awful speller. I practically failed my tests each week regardless of how hard I studied. Later in life I realized I'm probably a little dyslexic, which I'm sure didn't help at all. To this day I still have to stop and think when I spell sycamore or special (not hard words, but I always superimpose the letters). I should probably get tested, but at this point in life I'm not sure there's a whole lot they can do for me.
Mr. Schmidle asked me to sit beside Elizabeth Reilly to help her focus in class. Her parents were getting a divorce, and she was having such a hard time doing well in school. She was one of the popular girls, and had a ton of fun, but it was hard to try to help her. We became friends and it became even harder to get her to focus. Eventually Elizabeth was so distracting to my school work, that we were moved apart so I could better focus on class and not chat during school.
Fourth Grade was the year we had "The Change of Life" class. Although I remember learning all about periods when Elise Walri went through this class, and again in great detail when we had this lesson in school, I never remember my mom talking to me about periods. I felt so grown up after learning about the changes we would soon be going through, that Karen and I decided we should probably start wearing pads just in case we started our periods. This was quickly put to an end when Karen's mom found herself running out of pads at an unusually quick rate.
Around this time I also got pretty devious! Sheila and I were sharing a room, and I would make up all kind of crap to tell her. I had her convinced we had a year supply of dehydrated water, I told her our bedroom really belonged to me and she had to ask permission to come in. To this day Sheila will ask me "Do you remember when you told me xxxxx? I just realized that wasn't true!"
But she did her fair share of annoying me right back. Sunday mornings she would wait until I got dressed and she would put on the closest thing she had to my outfit so we would match. If I then changed, she would also change to match. It was so frustrating! She would constantly steal my toys and clothing, eat my candy she was the epitome of younger sister. Sometimes we would play together without any problems, but we did an awful lot of fighting.
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