4/18/2006

Cheese, Peas and Chocolate Pudding

When I was in (I think) Second Grade, I used to love this story. I seem to remember illustrations, too. I think the main character was a young african-american boy. I was so tickled by the story and the illustrations that it's stuck with me all these years.

What else do I remember from my second grade classroom? Hmmm... Mrs. Hughes, of course...candy raisins as rewards in reading games (I seem to recall that we were reading Clifford in 2nd grade. Today's kids are reading Clifford in Kindergarten!)...Dean Arbogash being tied to his chair, because he kept getting up for a drink of water...Tracy not being able to hold it any longer, and leaving my desk in an island surrounded by pee... misspelling forty-two in the class spelling bee (left out the hyphen)... reading about this idea that NASA had for a "brick with wings" that was called the Space Shuttle... figuring out that Haley's Comet returned in 1986, I'd be a senior in High School, and about a million years old... learning all of the new two-letter abbreviations for states (no more 'Wisc.' for me)... bubblers (water fountains for those with limited vocabularies) in the classroom sinks that somehow always smelled like tempera paint... oh, and starting to feel sick and just getting up and running downstairs to the bathroom, just like Dad said to, except it was too far to go and I threw up just as I opened the door... Trevor Claybaugh being sent down to check on me, and refusing to go into the bathroom because of all the vomit on the floor...

Everything else is part of the jumbled memories of childhood and Willow Springs Elementary, not connected to any grade in particular. Strange how much I can remember once I get going, hmmm? And don't even ask me about first grade... nasty, ucky stuff going on then. Maybe I'll tell you about it some day. Maybe not.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, good memory. I can't remember anything about second grade except learning to write cursive (a useless art) and almost getting my eye poked out by a stupid boy swinging from a tree branch on the playground (I pounded him later). Strangely, there's a Willow Springs Elementary School about 4 miles from my house. Even stranger, my children's assigned elementary school is 7 miles away, but I digress. By the way, those of us with "limited vocabulary" thank Your Wordiness for spelling out the bubbler reference. Dork.

Anonymous said...

Wow...great memory! I do remember that great moment in time (being tied to the chair- this is Dean by the way)

Yeah, those were the good old days. Ahhhh...

And who is this again? I'd love to pick your brain some more.

Cheers!

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