Thursday, January 19, 2006

Time Machine Memory Tour-4th Grade

There are several bits and pieces of memories from fourth grade. Here goes:
-My teacher read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to us as a class. I loved it!

-I saw my first "girlie" magazine at recess with some guys who turned out to be sexual deviants of different degrees later in life. (I'm not proud of this-just stating a fact.) They started their obsession with sex early. Sadly, since I was already too big for training bras, I felt my only self-worth was as a sex object. It was how I drew attention from others-what set me apart from the rest. And it only added to my diminished self-esteem (but there is good news about that just a few years later).

-Sabrina E. invited me to her bowling party. It was my first time at the Bowling Alley, and I was soaking in all the sights and sounds and smells as well as learning to bowl. She had some cool high school girls there too, who had cute little miniskirts with matching "bottoms." The hard part was when I was told by several of the girls that the only reason I was invited was because Sabrina's mother made her invite everyone in the Girl Scout troop-to discourage her from having a clique. She had good intentions, but it backfired as the "mean girls" pointed out just how backward I was. I felt *SO* different! At least Sabrina was nice to me.

-I had a crush on a new guy at school who had gypsy/hippy parents. His folks openly did drugs. He had a different look and talk than the other kids. I can't remember his name. Seems his last name had the word "berry" in it-like Newberry or something like that. He held his breath to protest something the teacher had done, to prove his point, and the freckles on his face made him look like a strawberry-his face was so red! He was hoping to pass out, but before he did, the teacher drug him up to the principal. He was a bad seed for sure. One time he stole money from me and from others-money we were to take to a Girl Scout meeting. We were all strip searched to find out who had done the dirty deed. I was humiliated by it-but the girls strip searched with me were even more embarrassed-they were poor and did not have nice underwear on. My heart went out to them. I remember Mom speaking at the PTA about the security we had at school against these thugs. It was my first real look at the boy I thought was so "cool." He hurt so many people. And he was gone as quickly as he arrived in our school.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

That was a school board meeting and the big issue was the fact that the teachers had done a strip search without prior notification to parents or anything. If I remember right, they had a high school boy do the boys search. It caused a big stink in town with a division of those who thought it was appropriate and those who thought it wasn't. I spoke up for the teachers. I didn't think they ever decided who got the money. As far as that certain boy or his name, my mind is blank, I can't recall him at all.