February 22, 2008

• Kween of the Queens challenge: Before I was 10

  THINGS THAT HAPPENED TO ME BEFORE I WAS 10

  A blogtopic post for the Kween of the Queens blogring. Other entries can be found HERE.

  Get in your Way Back Machines!  Can you remember things that happened to you before you were ten?  List it, make up a story about it, write a poem about it, post pictures about it. . .any way you want to present it, I’ll link it up for you! 

  My tenth birthday arrived at about 5:30am on the morning of May 1st, 1963. I was in my second to last month of the fourth grade. Let’s pretend that miraculously Xanga was around back then. (The servers would have been enormous and taken up half a city block, and of course John wan’t born yet, but hey, “any way you want to present it” is the instruction.) Let’s pretend that I just signed up for Xanga service (there were less pedophiles in 1963 so it was safe for 10 year olds to create blogs!) and I have just written my first blog entry. (I wrote it on sideways pieces of 8×10 paper with both thick and thin lines (to differentiate between the upper and lower case letters) and my mother typed it up for me on the new “computing machine” that connects with the “xangasphere.” Mom corrected some of the grammar but left it mostly as is, even though I wasn’t writing quite as well at the age of ten.

  Here we go:

  I’m really excited about summer coming. My library card is already worn out. The first book I’m gonna read are a biography of Harry Houdini. Magic is really neat, and maybe I’ll learn some tricks, but I doubt it. According to the Reader’s Digest Treasury book mommy bought for us, Houdini buried all his secrets with him.

  My teacher this year was Mrs. Walters. I think I was spoiled by having a man teacher last year. Mr. Curtis. But Mrs. Walters is neat. She’s tall with grey hair, but not “old looking” like my 2nd grade teacher Mrs Christman, who was also fat. I liked Spelling best this year. It’s always neat to learn new words, but most of the kids don’t care. Lucy is smart too, and I like her. But she likes Greg, and  Mommy doesn’t let us out of the yard to play, so even though I could visit Lucy down the street, I’m not allowed to, so we don’t talk much after school. Greg’s my best friend, but he’s not so smart.

  Since this is the first time I’m doing this “blogging” thing for extra credit. Some of the kids think I’m a pansy cause I like to read and get extra credit. But all the teachers like me. Mommy is in the PTA and she helps out all over the school, so most of the teachers know me even if they haven’t taught me. I still remember when Mrs. Malin in the first grade showed me the school library when I tired of all those “See Dick run” books. Then I got my library card for the big library over town which was even more wonderful So many books stacked three or four times higher than my head! And so many words. I bet you could be the smartest kid in the world if you read all those books!

  I’m looking at my paper machier brontosaurus I made this year for Art. Danny hasn’t broken it yet, and if he does I’ll kill ‘im. All the other kids in class made much smaller things, but I wanted to make the biggest artwork, and I did. I used multiple balloons and Mrs.Walter had to help me, but Bronty is over three feet long. After Spelling, I think I like Art best. I also made some neat clay things. Everybody did the “hand” where we put our hands in clay and then decorated it, but I did a “monster” and scared some of the girls.

  We had square dancing in the “cafetorium” (that’s what Mommy and the teachers call the cafeteria when it’s used as an auditorium.) for the first time this year. I really like dancing. I always like it when I’m paired with Lucy, but it doesn’t last long, because we change partners all the time. At the box social this year I picked Sonya’s box. It was fried chicken, but a little cold. Sonya is too skinny and tall. I prolly made Bronty so big cause I’m so short. Only Willard is shorter than me. I make sure the bigger kids don’t pick on him. (And Miguel makes sure some of the bigger kids don’t pick on me.)

  At home Daddy is getting ready to build the new bedroom and bathroom for he and Mommy. I helped out with laying the plumbing pipes in the ground. Daddy says I’ll be a “good handyman” when I grow up cause I’m learning so much about construction. When he finishes building the “addition”, then maybe I and Danny will have separate bedrooms. That’s what he promised. We have lots of toys, but we keep them in the toy boxes when we aren’t playing so the room isn’t too crowded.

  I saw a movie on TV the other day which really was strange. Danny and I like Elvis movies and Frankenstein, and we love to watch Chiller Theater and Strange Tales of Science Fiction on weekends. This movie was different. It was called “Citizen Kane” and was about a man’s whole life. It looked different than any of the movies we watch. If I could someday make a movie like this it would be neat. I don’t know how they make the movies, but I really like them. This summer Mommy signed us up for the matinee program at the El Monte Theater again. They show lots of Elvis movies and shows like Jack the Giant Killer.

  Well, I should get lots of extra credit for this. It’s almost time for supper, and Mommy’s making meat loaf which smells good. Goodbye.

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  The photo is my fifth grade school photo (I’m at work so don’t have my fourth grade photo available) backed by the house I grew up in. The photo of the house was taken in 2004. When I lived there, the fence was made of rocks inserted in concrete. I was very disappointed when returning to El Monte to take photos of childhood places that the “home made” fence had been removed by later owners.  BTW, it’s not too late to “ask me a question” about any subject for the blogtag challenge. I’ve gotten some great questions, but want to give everybody a chance to ask me something!

  • 10:18 am
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