Question of the Week

What is your best or worst memory of grade school?

Chick Kristin  Best: My ultimate best memory was of the time I spent teaching the "special" children math. I was doing junior high math by the time I was in 5th Grade, so when my other classmates were working on their regular math, I would work with "special" children teaching them basic math, playing games and learning more from them than I ever thought possible. Worst: When my girlfriend Cheri would be angry with me. She would rally all of her friends to stop talking to me for days on end. Then, for no reason at all, she'd be my friend again. So funny.

Chick Karin  Best: Walking home for lunch everyday and, every once in awhile, taking a side trip and going over to my Auntie Doll's. (That's her real name, Dolly.) I would do the side trip at least twice a week, and if she was home, she would let me come in and eat lunch. She would always warm up this hamburger soup that my Uncle Don had made. Then, on Friday, I would walk over to her house after school and beg her to call my mom to see if I could sleep over. I have no idea why she let me in, she already had five kids of her own. But, she's still my favorite person in the whole world, and I even scheduled my daughter's birth (C-section) to fall on Auntie Doll's birthday. By the way, Auntie Doll's house was only two blocks from school, while my house was fourteen city blocks from school. No busses. And get this... we walked at 8 am, then home for lunch, back again, and then home at 3:30 pm. Believe me, I let my spoiled, un-exercised kids know this, especially in the middle of winter. Worst: Always dreaming that I forget to wear underpants to school. I was a dress girl. I still have that dream.

Chick Lorene  Worst: Rodney chased me home every single day for two years, trying to kiss me! The lamp posts were "safe" and I made it every time without being smooched! The good news is that I made the track team in middle school after all that running!

Chick Julie  You've got to be kidding me!! I remember the only part of the day I liked was recess and phys-ed. My 4th grade teacher was awesome and my 5th grade teacher was a crab but everything else is a blurr!!!!

Chick Jana  Worst: When I was in 1st grade we were lined up waiting for the bell to ring so we could leave for the day. I was holding onto my wooden carving of a hand that was in the shape of a peace sign. (Karin is laughing -- we loved this thing.) I had brought it for show-and-tell that day. Jeff Cardinal was lined up next to me in line. All day he'd said he was going to kiss me, so I'd done my best to stay away from him. But during our exit lineup, he leaned over and tried to kiss me. I started hitting him with my peace sign hand and made quite a scene. The teacher asked why I was hitting Jeff, but I was too embarrassed to say that he tried to kiss me so we both had to stay after school. Oh, I was so mad. Best: I won an award in 2nd grade for the best art project. It was a competition with the whole 2nd grade and all the students voted on which paintings they liked the best. I took 1st place and I still have no idea how I really won. It was a picture of a multicolored, polka-dotted horse (the creative artist... really it was ugly). Maybe some of them remembered how devastated I was in 1st grade and tried to make me feel better. Whatever the reason, I remember beaming while accepting my 1st place ribbon.

Chick Jeanette  Worst: I was in fourth grade when the school nurse decided that I was malnutritioned (I only weighed 35 lbs.), so they sent me to Bancroft, a school my brothers called the "rickets school." Each day, I had to be bussed much farther away, be there in time to eat breakfast (they served some sort of mush), then have a mid morning snack, lunch, mid-afternoon snack and dinner. I was in school from 7am to 5 pm! I didn't like it, didn't have any friends there, and they made me -- a fourth grader -- take naps twice a day. I cried and pouted so much at home that finally (I think after two weeks) my parents let me go back to Irving, my regular school. (Incidentally, by then I had gained the proper weight!) I am so happy I'll never have to go to Bancroft again. Another Worst: One more bad memory... After third grade I moved from rural one room school to big city school. Miss Steinmitz told me loudly the second day of school that I didn't write correctly because I had poor penmanship.  My writing was WAY to small. I went home and cried!

Chick Susie  Worst: I had to take piano (classical) all through grade school. Yes, from a nun, no less. So twice per week when the rest of the class headed out to recess, I headed to the convent (right next door) to learn scales, Beethoven and Bach -- you get the picture -- from Sister Eugenda. Needless to say, after eight years of this routine, coupled with the requirement that you had to play the organ at benediction if you were a music student, no one was happier than I to graduate. But what was such a chore and a burden then has now repaid me with hours of pleasure.