Sixth Grade

The Elementary to Middle School transition was extremely hard! I'm sure it is for everyone, but the first year was especially awkward. Every year my mom would take us back to school shopping and we could get one brand new outfit to wear for the first day of school. Never was I so worried about picking the right outfit! I even tried to figure out how I could sneak makeup to school and put it on before school started (and take it off before heading home). I was especially excited because my best friend from church, Natalie Morris would be going to Boyd R Larson Middle School with me!

I didn't make a whole lot of friends in sixth grade, because I was so shy and insecure about myself. I ended up sitting with an girl that didn't have any friends at the time either, Alex Jenkowski. She seemed pretty insecure about our friendship too, so she would buy me a Twix candy bar every day. She had a sister in college at the University of Michigan, which I thought was so cool.

This is the first time I got to choose some of my classes. I picked home ec., Spanish, shop and French. I really enjoyed the home ec. class, although I found the way I was taught to cook and sew was very non conventional. I learned you are supposed to use the measuring cups precisely and level off all ingredients with a knife or something (not that I do it, but I learned you should). Also, people don't typically add extra vanilla to everything sweet.

Sewing want pretty much the same way. I guess you should follow a pattern and directions, some steps need to take place in a certain order, etc. Although the method of sewing and cooking I was taught was pretty unconventional, once you understand the basics, it works.

I followed the rules a lot more in shop class. It was fun to create a plan, cut the things out and put them all together. I still have the shelf I made in shop class hanging in our house in the entry way. I made a lazy susan and a shelf.

One of the girls in my shop class, Antsy, was always made fun of by some of the popular boys. She was Indian, and a little more harry than most girls. They would scandalously tease her about her looks. One day I'd had enough of hearing it so I challenged the boy that was teasing her to an arm wrestling match. I told him if I won he had to stop teasing her. I beat him, he got made fun of for being beat by a girl and he stopped teasing her in shop class at least.

I was great at Spanish class, and looking back I should have taken more classes. I really had a skill, and probably could have easily picked up the language. Too bad it didn't really interest me! I was mostly scared of writing in a foreign language. I can't spell in English, so I couldn't imagine trying to figure out how to spell in a foreign language!

While mom and I were out shopping, we walked by a rack of training bras. Karen Walri already had a few, and I desperately wanted to start out Middle School as a "mature young woman", although I was so embarrassed when mom actually asked if I wanted a pack. I turned bright red, nodded and kept walking as she threw a pack into the cart. Little did I know I would be a super late bloomer and not really need one until High School.

The summer before this year I contracted Scabies while visiting my Grandma and Grandpa Brown. Their dog carried the disease, and I must have gotten it from petting him. I've never been so embarrassed about a health issue, and as a result became very shy and withdrawn until the third doctor I went to figured out what was wrong with me. I was so itchy all the time; it was just awful! Even when they figured out what was wrong with me, the medication I was given caused huge pools of puss to gather under my skin that I had to pop with a needle. Not exactly the way you want to start the year!

In December my parents decided to go on a trip to Costa Rica with my Uncle James and Aunt Rebeccah Brown. Rebeccah worked for one of the airlines at the time, so they were able to get relatively cheap airfare. They had so much fun on their trip and brought back such great pictures, that a desire for travel was entrenched in me!

One winter day I went to school and forgot to put my (unnecessary) training bra on. I was wearing a bright red sweater, and it had little holes in the pattern. I was mortified when I realized you could see through the holes and could tell I wasn't wearing a bra! Never was I so humiliated and I walked from class to class with a folder held firmly in front of me. I felt it was a blessing that it ended up snowing so hard that they canceled school early.

I started playing the viola in 5th grade, and continued through eight grade to play in the orchestra. I remember being talented. I didn't practice almost ever, but I could always play the songs in class and for performances. I even won a metal at a competition our school attended. Looking back, I should have been a more dedicated student. Maybe I'll see if I can pick it back up later in life. It's a talent I wish I hadn't given up.

The summer of this year I started Young Womens. I was so excited to be out of Primary, but scared to be in with all those big girls! I remember Pam and Wendy Johnson coming over and talking to me my first Sunday in Young Womens. I'm sure they were just trying to make me feel comfortable, but I thought they were there to tease me! I ended up crying because I didn't know how to deal with them. But once I got comfortable and more of my friends joined our class.

We were always such a large group of girls, that our age had our own class and teacher. I was so glad because Amie and Aubrey Kellett were a year older than me, and could be mean at times. They never targeted me to tease, but I remember being worried that I wanted to stay on their good side.

We had Sister Dorton as our teacher, and she couldn't stand us! She was really snippy and would yell at us on a regular basis. I remember Tiffany Welch, Natalie Morris talking and getting yelled at in one particular class and her calling us "you little b!#%@es!" Our moms had a hay day with that one. We were loud and sometimes rowdy, but that's no reason to swear at kids at church. We had her husband as our teacher a few years later, and he was the sweetest man. He did everything he could to get us involved in the lessons. It makes me wonder how the two of them ever got married.

I also remember briefly having Sister Belcher as our Beehive teacher. She was a weird one! She would insist we sit in a circle in class so she could touch all of our knees during the lesson. I don't remember much of my interaction with her, I just remember her giving us our first lesson on chastity. It was so awkward! She kept telling us how fabulous sex can be, but how we need to wait to have it with our husband. I was totally shocked by her openness and extremely embarrassed.

This summer was the start of my career as a baby sitter and a paper girl. We didn't get a big allowance, so I was always looking for ways to earn more money. From shoveling other people's driveways, to picking wild raspberries and selling them to neighbors, we always seemed to have a scheme to make more money. So when the Wells moved out of state, I volunteered to take over Heather Wells' paper route. I only had about 15 houses, but I made $60 a month for 20 minutes of work every day after school. It was a good little job, and a great start to teach me how to work.

My favorite customer was an old retired man that lived just a street away from us, named Balou. He was a little rough around the edges, but had a fun since of humor! He would talk to me briefly as I walked his paper to the front door every day. One day he's sitting on his front porch, waiting for his paper, and when I brought it up to him he says "come and see my first grand baby." So I walked into the house and he pointed me to the little baby laying in a playpen and told him how cute the baby was. He was just so proud! He always tipped me more than it cost to get the paper, and I loved dropping his paper off every day.

I also started baby sitting for neighbors and friends of the family this summer. My mom taught me well that you want to play hard with the kids and make sure a half hour before the parents are supposed to be home you clean everything up. Put toys away and leave the house cleaner than when you arrived. If you ate anything, make sure the dishes are washed. It was smart advice, and because I strictly followed it, I always got return phone calls.