Timeline of Events
One may think that tracking down past school, houses, even states would be easy, but I am having the hardest time just trying to remember some of the most common things. Recently, my mother called to talk about my kindergarten year...years in school. My unchallenged memory was that I had to repeat kindergarten due to my lack of interest in learning. Apparently, all I wanted to do was play. Still seems like a legitimate claim. My mother's memory was a bit different, however. She seemed to believe that I was scheduled to repeat kindergarten, but was placed in a transitional class that moved me to the first grade halfway through the year. Okay. I disagreed and started to do some searching. Setting up a timeline to prove that I repeated the entire year was easy. Way to go me... I did find out that somehow my 6 and 7 year old brain was able to remember the events with more accuracy than my mother. Unfortunately, this only opened up a larger can of worms. You see, of my entire childhood, we moved at least once per year. The only year that I ended school in the same place I started was in the first grade -- Ms. Bussey's class. Got a lot of memories from that year. Some of them I am not ready to share. Maybe some other day. Anyways, I now see this as a challenge. I need to know when and where I was for so many years. I will enter what I am able to figure out and add to it as I learn more. Below are the current finding of The Adventures of My Childhood...
1986-1987
This would have been my first year in kindergarten. The only thing I can recall about that time is my brief stent in White Oak. There are only a few things I recall about this time. One, the school, maybe not mine but one close to our apartment, had the coolest caboose on the playground. I remember always wanting to play on that. Two, my teacher must not have liked me at all. One of the only memories I have from that classroom was the time she grabbed me by the neck and choked me. I must have really not wanted to listen to her instruction. Makes sense that they held me back. And lastly, I broke into my friends downstairs apartment and ransacked his room looking for my pencil eraser end. It was one of the angle top erasers that fit on the end of a worn pencil. I don't think we had money for much, so when he would not give it back I took matters into my own hands. Not my proudest moment.
1987-1988
Here we go again. Round two for kindergarten. I am not sure where I started, where I finished, or how my sessions with my tutor fit in, but I am mostly certain that it all happened. I do have a vague memory of kindergarten in Pine Tree, but I am not sure if it was part of my first round or my second round. I think it may have been my second attempt. One thing I recall is the skeleton song and getting marked incorrectly on my coloring test due to the teacher not seeing that I did in fact color the rabbit on the page. I just colored it white and it did not look too much differently than blank. I must not have done too bad otherwise because I somehow made it out of the K-Rut that year. K-Rut is my new term for getting stuck in kindergarten for longer than the required term. You are free to abuse it for yourself, if you can find any other poor soul to which it would apply.
1988-1989
First Grade. Finally a number grade. Enter reading, cub scouts, Willie Wonka, and, well... anything else one could associate with that grade. I recall my favorite book being Hank the Cowdog. Not sure if I recall ever reading a single story, but I did check out several of the series. One thing that I have always seemed sure of was that I started and ended the year at the same school. Not sure why I would have understood its importance at the time, but it has always stuck with me.
1989-1990
Breaking into the next decade. Wow, pretty sure that had no impact on me at the time. However, it seems pretty impressive now that I look back. We all have our first, and this one was mine. I miss you 90's. Much like a past girlfriend, you don't respect what you had until it is gone. I digress. Back to my timeline and welcome the second grade. This one, too, is hard to recall. I remember spending some of the year in Gilmer, as this was the year I contracted pneumonia and missed two weeks of school. One of the few memories I have about the time I was sick, was when my neighbor friends came over to check on me and, in come feverish haze, I yelled at them to leave and shot at them with my BB gun. I have never understood why I did that and regret doing so, to this day. This is also the time I found the supply room next to the boys bathroom unlocked and took many breaks to fill my pockets with "free" pencils. It must have not occurred to me how suspicious my actions were, but my teacher caught on quickly and called me out for stealing. This was not the first time I received a paddling at school, but definitely a memorable one. At some point I moved to a school in Harmony, Texas, but not sure how much time was spent at either school. Harmony was a small, country school that was set in its ways. One of which was the disliking of people with a different skin tone. I don't recall anyone ever openly saying anything negative about another race, but it was definitely known that "others" had been harassed to the point of leaving. I also recall this being the year I met one of the few short term friends that I would never forget -- Jason Figle<sp>. He was one of the few friends that I was allowed to visit at his house or invite to mine. My most memorable experience with him was when we created our gang called The Red Scorpions. The motto was, "Red Scorpions always sting." Not sure how a group of young boys came up with such nonsense, but somehow we did. We were absolutely harmless, if you did not consider the arsenal of knives we all brought to school. Much like any other second grade secret, we were found out and asked to bring all of our knives to the teacher. I will never forget the image of my teacher standing in the hallway with both hands open and full of knives of all different types and sizes. Not something that would have been taken lightly today. I was able to finish the grade in Harmony but left shortly after the third grade began.
1986-1987
This would have been my first year in kindergarten. The only thing I can recall about that time is my brief stent in White Oak. There are only a few things I recall about this time. One, the school, maybe not mine but one close to our apartment, had the coolest caboose on the playground. I remember always wanting to play on that. Two, my teacher must not have liked me at all. One of the only memories I have from that classroom was the time she grabbed me by the neck and choked me. I must have really not wanted to listen to her instruction. Makes sense that they held me back. And lastly, I broke into my friends downstairs apartment and ransacked his room looking for my pencil eraser end. It was one of the angle top erasers that fit on the end of a worn pencil. I don't think we had money for much, so when he would not give it back I took matters into my own hands. Not my proudest moment.
1987-1988
Here we go again. Round two for kindergarten. I am not sure where I started, where I finished, or how my sessions with my tutor fit in, but I am mostly certain that it all happened. I do have a vague memory of kindergarten in Pine Tree, but I am not sure if it was part of my first round or my second round. I think it may have been my second attempt. One thing I recall is the skeleton song and getting marked incorrectly on my coloring test due to the teacher not seeing that I did in fact color the rabbit on the page. I just colored it white and it did not look too much differently than blank. I must not have done too bad otherwise because I somehow made it out of the K-Rut that year. K-Rut is my new term for getting stuck in kindergarten for longer than the required term. You are free to abuse it for yourself, if you can find any other poor soul to which it would apply.
1988-1989
First Grade. Finally a number grade. Enter reading, cub scouts, Willie Wonka, and, well... anything else one could associate with that grade. I recall my favorite book being Hank the Cowdog. Not sure if I recall ever reading a single story, but I did check out several of the series. One thing that I have always seemed sure of was that I started and ended the year at the same school. Not sure why I would have understood its importance at the time, but it has always stuck with me.
1989-1990
Breaking into the next decade. Wow, pretty sure that had no impact on me at the time. However, it seems pretty impressive now that I look back. We all have our first, and this one was mine. I miss you 90's. Much like a past girlfriend, you don't respect what you had until it is gone. I digress. Back to my timeline and welcome the second grade. This one, too, is hard to recall. I remember spending some of the year in Gilmer, as this was the year I contracted pneumonia and missed two weeks of school. One of the few memories I have about the time I was sick, was when my neighbor friends came over to check on me and, in come feverish haze, I yelled at them to leave and shot at them with my BB gun. I have never understood why I did that and regret doing so, to this day. This is also the time I found the supply room next to the boys bathroom unlocked and took many breaks to fill my pockets with "free" pencils. It must have not occurred to me how suspicious my actions were, but my teacher caught on quickly and called me out for stealing. This was not the first time I received a paddling at school, but definitely a memorable one. At some point I moved to a school in Harmony, Texas, but not sure how much time was spent at either school. Harmony was a small, country school that was set in its ways. One of which was the disliking of people with a different skin tone. I don't recall anyone ever openly saying anything negative about another race, but it was definitely known that "others" had been harassed to the point of leaving. I also recall this being the year I met one of the few short term friends that I would never forget -- Jason Figle<sp>. He was one of the few friends that I was allowed to visit at his house or invite to mine. My most memorable experience with him was when we created our gang called The Red Scorpions. The motto was, "Red Scorpions always sting." Not sure how a group of young boys came up with such nonsense, but somehow we did. We were absolutely harmless, if you did not consider the arsenal of knives we all brought to school. Much like any other second grade secret, we were found out and asked to bring all of our knives to the teacher. I will never forget the image of my teacher standing in the hallway with both hands open and full of knives of all different types and sizes. Not something that would have been taken lightly today. I was able to finish the grade in Harmony but left shortly after the third grade began.