GO TO SCHOOL

I remember the first day of school.  We were living on Clover Lane in Boise.  Dad took me. By the time I was picked up that afternoon, we found I was enrolled in another school that that required a bus trip.  My first grade teacher was named Mrs. Smith.  My second grade teacher was also Mrs. Smith.  It was hard to remember to call her teacher rather than Mom.  I do remember being given a test on writing numbers one to nine.  I asked a class mFranceate how to make a six.  I new my numbers, I had never written them. 

To digress for a moment, one of the nurses in surgery at WKMH had a little girl who was starting first grade in the Fall. All summer, Frances took her shopping, got her new clothes, shoes, school supplies.  On the appointed day she got her little girl up, dressed and off to school.  She asked her what school was like, it was ok,  The next morning Frances got her up for school and the little girl gasped, "What, again!?" 

Back to my first grade.  We had to walk past a yard full of barking German Shepherds, we could walk to another pickup.  One time, as I was walking toward the front of the school bus, a little boy jumped up and kissed me on the cheek.  I was very confused.  But I was consoled by the fact that a butterfly landed on my dress.  When I got home I would take off my dress and change.  I wore the same dress for a week.  Also at this time I joined the Brownie Scouts.  I got the recipe for chocolate mayonaaise cake during that time.  

The next school I attended was in New Plymouth or Payette, not sure which.  We lived on a farm just east of there and Mom drove us to school.  The school building was a two story brick with fancy fire escape slides, never got to do down them.  

We moved a lot but the only other place I went to school was American Falls.  I loved reading anything but I was terrible at numbers.  One test was where you had to place clock hands in the correct position, I got them all backwards.  We moved some more and finally settled in Emmett, Idaho.  We went to Wardwell school, it was three stories tall, the third floor had been condemned at that time and never got to slide down the fancy fire escape slides.  The lunch room was in the basement.  Fourth grade was where we all learned cursive, lots of drawn tornadoes, loops etc.  Also field trips to the saw mill and State Capitol, which is an exact copy the nations capital only one third size, very impressive. Fifth grade, I went to Parkview where I eventually graduated eighth grade after learning the eight parts of speech.   Both Richard and I worked in the lunch room for free meals.  I left class a little early to walk to Wardwell.  The food was ok as I remember, nothing exotic like balogna boats.  Never had the pleasure.  Fifth grade was taught by Alice Brownsfield.  Would read to us for half an hour after we came in from lunch time. I remember Black Beauty and Beautiful Joe.  She also taught art.  I learned how to construct perspective.  Very informative.  There may have been a little Jack London thrown in but I do not rememnber.  Six grade was right next door, again Mrs. Smith.  She had a big old windup phonograph and we listened to old Vaudeville skits and Barney Google, with the goo goo googly eyes. It was then that Mrs Smith put me in the front row because I was squinting.  I needed glasses.  After obtaining the glasses, I was thrilled to be able to see beyond the end of my eyes.  Seventh grade meant we had a home room and all other classes were conducted in other rooms.  I remember read a poem called the Childrens Hour when the bell rang and all the children began walking to different class rooms.  Eight grade was torture because of math glass, I had to repeat it.  Corporal punishment consisted of a circle drawn on the blackboard and a culprits nose stuck with in the circle.  

Eighth graduation was held at the highschool.  Mom made me a cool cotton dress white with black polkadots.  I loved it and wish I still had it.  It was then that I realized that I was taller than my father.  He was a wonderfully funny man.  

Freshman year was the year of the wig hat and humilation from the beautiful Gratton boys in Study Hall.  One of them patted me on the head, that was the end of the wig hat.  

Algebra and Geometry were a relief, it was like telling a story with numbers.  I did well with Geometry because I typed all the theorems and used red and blue ink.  Miss Primativa Perez from the Phillipines scolded us because we were so lazy.  

It was that year on November that Kennedy was assassinated.  A very long four day weekend with constant coverage.  I went to Church on Sunday and Jack Ruby had assasinated Oswald by the time we got home.  

Graduated highschool 50 of 150.  I was paired with a very popular boy to march into the auditorium.  He was gorgeous and if looks could have killed I would have been smoking.  I

 forgot about the half year I attended school in Riggins, Idaho.  They had an art class and my typing was done to music.  Weird. I became aware of a beautiful Senior couple. She was blond and he was dark.  The first time I saw him, I thought I was having a heart attack, my heart was pounding and I was afraid I would faint.  He was the prettiest young man I had ever seen.  

We went by bus.  We also attended Church School, all of us, me and my three sisters and both boys. One of the teachers thought I was the girls Mother.  As if.  It was only one week.  

We had no TV reception so we played Nertz or played in the creek in the backwhere there were otters. It was quite magical.  

No more school until I moved back to Idaho after my divorce. I went to BSU for medical records.  Made the Deans list, took the national test and worked in Emmett the twelve years.  

After I moved to Barrow, I decided to take a culture pill at the local Ilisagvik College.  My class was film and literature.  We watched the most recent Frankenstein.  We were challenged to write a sequel.  Mine was called Big Man and I have mentioned it before. 

We were also given the book Love In The Time of Cholera.  It was only six chapters but they were thick ones.  As I was reading the book, something started to bother me in fact it bothered me so much I started paging backwards.  Eventually I found an identical paragraph, word for word.  I was intrigued. I was told to write to Marquez and ask if this was a one time Easter Egg.  I did so but never heard from him.  I never read any of his other books to see if there were other easter eggs so.  I have self educated on many things but mostly fiction etc.  I would love to study language but am far too lazy to be any good at such an effort.

BECOMING A WOMAN

 It has been several decades since, but when we lived on Pine Creek, Dad was working on the Hells Canyon Dam project, Mom decided that I needed to be informed on what was to come. She gave me a pamphlet and told me to read it.  Ok.  When I was finished, she asked me what I thought.  I just shrugged, I was eager to go back outside and play with everyone else.  I pretty much forgot all about it.  In middleschool, all the girls had to go watch a film in Health Class.  Again I failed to understand any of it.  Did not ask my girlfriends what it was all about. I was eager to go check out a book from the study hall library and lose myself in tales about teenagers and horses.  I do remember reading the directions on a box of Kotex and while it said the pad could not be seen.  I thought the pad went across the stomach and thought it would be a dead giveaway to lumpiness.  Eventually, I got my first period.  I hollered at Mom who came into the bathroom and showed me where the pad actually went and how to hook front and back with the little elastic belt.  No big deal.  Had a couple of crampy periods but over all went well.  Learned to check for leaks before leaving the house, etc.  Still did not realize that Mom was also experiencing the joys of woman hood.  Could have been a bonding moment.  Later on, I learned all about Tampax and I did not feel that I benefited all that much from the experience.  My girlfriend, Judy, did not remove the cardboard outer cover and found it to be painful.  Oy!  In the mid sixties and later, I was on birth control pills.  I adored knowing exactly what Wednesday when I would get my very light period. That nonsense went on until 2005-6 when menopause occurred.  Yay! Never had a hot flash or cold flash.   Just stopped, Hooray me!!!  If I had ever had a daughter I hope I would have informed her and talked with her to say it would be all right.  The one time I complained to mom, she just said it was the nature of the beast.  Thank you so much. And perhaps injected a bit of humor.  I wonder if there are tasteful yet amusing jokes about menarche.   One day when I was a senior, I came in and Mom had the sewing machine set up.  I looked at the pattern and it was a maternity smock.  I asked her who that was for and she grunted ME.  I did not say anything but I should have hugged her and said, you will  love this baby, he will keep you young running around after him.  If you are worried that I might be thought to be pregnant and going to live in California. well you just march that  belly all over town to show them what is what. 

HALLOWEEN

 Halloween:  As a child, most of the treats pwere homemade.  The best were popcorn balls, sweet and tangy with melted marshmallow and apple cider vinegar. The candy was usually fudge, divinity and peanut brittle.  The candy sometimes disappeared to reappear at Christmas.  

Halloween is a big deal in Barrow, Alaska.   Someone from housing would come around and unlock the doors to all the twelve plexes. Then the hoards would descend.  Candy was usually gone fairly early.  No one wore costumes except the kids living in the building.  

One time, I wore a pair of wings at work and promised to grant one wish that involved leaving medical records immediately.  The trick or treaters in the villages did not want to miss out, so they divided themselves in half and took turns to go out and get treats. Trick or treat is pretty quiet here in town, we were among the 25% 

of adults who prestend were are not at home.  The town does have trick or trunk and the school and churches have activities as well as haunted houses.  There is a pumpkin patch across the river in Coos Bay where you can get your fill. I do not know if anyone had made a corn maze.  

I went on a hayride as a teenager sponsored by the First Christian Church.  I remember getting a very painful leg cramp and needed help to finish getting into the ride.  

We did not have to get our treats x-rayed when stupid people put razor bladed in apples etc.  We never wore costumes as kids, we were lucky we got to carry paper bags for the loot.  

O BOTHER

A couple of inconvenient happenings. On Sunday, the washer would not wash.  I called Charlie and gave him the error code E1F3, which meant to him that the water pressure sensor was out.  

I called the local repair guy but his mailbox is full and I cannot leave a message and I will not text being boomer technophobe.  

This morning husband drove Honda to hospital lab and could not get it started to come.  He took a jumper and got it started.   We drove the buggy to the hospital and got the car to Les Schwab.  

Then we drove by Archies Repair and got an addition phone number and I will call later on.  Not sure what lunch will consist of but I made a hotcake, bacon, tea and pills breaky.  Yay! 

SANDWICHES

Let us start at the vry beginning.   John Montague the fourth Earl of Sandwich loved playing whist so much that he did not want to leave the table for a meal in the dining room.  He had a servant put meat between two slices of bread so that he could continue playing.  I hope the meat was nice and juicy held in a linen napkin.  I am sure the mayo, mustard, pickles, lettuce and tomato came later.  Captain Cook also named the Hawaiian Islands after the Earl.  

When Richard and I were kids, we stayed at Grandma Berglunds house.  We were picking fruit at a nearby orchard.  Grandma B made sandwiche for us.  We stopped picking about nine am and discovered that the sandwiches consisted of bread, may and sliced spring onions.   

Then when Dad was working on the Hells Canyon Dam, we lived on Pine Creek.  Mom made peanut butter and grape jelly sandwiches.  We called it grease sandwiches because it resembled such,  Mom gave us Pepsi to drink.  If you got it just right you could peel of the mixture from the room of your mouth.  

My favorite sandwich became a hot Pastrami with mayo and dill pickle spear.  There was a deli near Fairchild and I loved to stop in Sparks for the Pastrami there.  

One time Mom and I stopped in eastern Idaho close to where the Hole In The Wall Gang hid.  It was late, they had pastrami and I ordered one.  Turned out to be a fried ham sandwich but I was hungry at ate i as well.  

I really enjoy Reuben sandwichest; there are a couple of variation, Corned beef with Russian and Pastrami with Thousand Island and the usual Swiss cheese, saurkraut on rye. Then grilled.  I like to visit a place down town.  I orered a Reuben and she told me the following story.  When she worked at another place a few years ago the special was Reubens.  A group of five came in, four men one woman.  They all ordered Reubens.  Sorry, all out of Pastrami.  She had thin sliced ham, would they like that instead.  Oh, she made the ham reubens and set them out.  The woman, Karen, started complaining that the ham was too salty, she didn't want hers grilled, it went on an on.  Finaly my friend snapped, "I hate you, Karen!"  There after whenever the men came in, they would order the I Hate You Karen sandwich.  

I forgot about the happy accident BLTT I made when Charlie and I lived on the ranch.  One day I started to make lunch and I did  not have bread.  I did have tortillas.  So I fried bacon, dragged the tortillas through the bacon grease.  Added tomatoes, lettuce an mayo to it and it makes a nifty BLT.  Yummy!!!

A COUPLE THINGS

CULTURE PILL:

When I lived in Barrow, Alaska, the local college would offer free course.  I took on about literature.  The instructure lived in my building, I gave a small old book written by Daniel Defoe titled, "Travels with a Donkey".  I am certain he invented an early version of the sleeping bag.  

When I lived in Barrow AK, the local college offered free classes.  The instructor lived in my building.  I gave him a little old book by Daniel Defoe titled Travel with a Donkey.  I am pretty sure he invented an early version of a sleeping bag.

At any rate, the class was local and very interesting.  We first watched he original Frankenstein.  We also watched a later edition starring Robert DeNiro as the monster. At the end of the class we were challenged to write any we liked about Frankenstein. I wrote a sequel titled "Big Man.  The book ended in the Arctic, seen as an exotic local circa 1812.  The ship burned however Frankenstein escaped to an ice floe.  He used the salt water to heal his burns and ate what he could catch from the sea.  A party of Eskimo hunters found him and decided to take him home with them.  He recovered and soon learned Inupiaq and shared meat.  He once drove off a polar bear with his roar.  Eventually they returned to Utkiagvik (Barrow).   No one minded his scars, many hunters were worse off.  The children loved him for he was very tall.  He married and named the first five children after his victims back home.  After that his wife named the rest of the children.  His leather notebook labeled Victor Frankenstein still exists where it can be found in the local library. 

Then we were introduced to Latin American authors.  We read "Love in the Time of Cholera" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.  It has six chapters and is about a courtship between two young people.  As I read it in the fifth chapter one of the paragraph sounded very familiar.  I started looking backwards.  I finally found a duplicate paragraph in the second chapter.  The paragraph was identical.  They were on a steamer along the river, it described the surroundings perfectly, the sounds, the smells.  I was puzzled.  The teacher suggested I write a letter to Marquez,  I did so,English and Spanish.  I never heard from him.  I have often wondered if he wrote other Easter Eggs in other books but I have never read them.  Has anyone else read them and if so did you find any Easter Eggs ?  

Then we read a short story titled "The Third Bank".  It was about a grieving woman asking the local Priest to find her husband.  He was astounded.  She reported that he left in a single person boat.  She begged the priest to bring home.  The priest told her that it was impossible.  We were supposed to figure out what really happened.  Someone suggest that the man's one person boat was actually a coffin and he was dead and could not return.  

My friend, Patrick Pendleton participated in a murder solving thing, He had a lot of fun.

COUNTING

 Numbers and I have always had a love hate relationshiop.  I had to repeat eighth grade general math.  Ugh.  I remember knowing my numbers as a child, my Aunt Ollie had me ask Central for three numbers but I kept reading the numbers on the dial.  In the first grade, we had a test write out number one through ten.  I remember asking a classmate how to make a six.  Later on when learning to read a clock, I always got them backwards.  The only times I performed well at math was algebra felt like telling a story only with numbers.  I got a good solid B for Geometry because I typed up the theorems using blue and red ink. As far as checking accounts are concerned, always remember the bank decucts before it credits, therefore you may NOT have enoiugh money in the bank to cover that thrice bounced check.  Um hmmm. Fortunately, Kindle does math like a genius.  Thanks Alexa.