Thursday Thirteen

The other day I was looking through someone else's photo album. It made me recall that I did a few things when I was a youngster and I thought I'd see if I could remember 13 things about K-12. Here goes!

1. I was a classroom spelling bee champion in the 6th grade. When it came time to be the school champion, I missed the word "haunted." You can bet I have never misspelled that word again.

2. The library and I were fast friends, and in elementary school, I brought home certificates every year for being a good library helper.

3. I played flute in band beginning in the 6th grade. One time the music teacher asked me to accompany her to Eagle Rock Elementary School, where we put on a performance together for the lower grades.

4. I sang in the school chorus in middle school (at that time middle school was 7th & 8th grade). The songs I remember singing are Black and White, by Three Dog Night, and Morning Has Broken, by Cat Stevens.

5. I battled for first chair in flute every year. The contest was always between me and Angie, and it seemed we'd alternate semesters as to who was the best. It was quite an honor to be named first chair flute, as that meant you were the best of the flute players. It also meant you were the one who played the piccolo sometimes. Everyone wanted to play the piccolo because it was cute.

6. I was an A student but always received a B in gym. If I hadn't had gym, I'd have been a straight A student every year. However, I was sickly and I missed 30-40 days of school annually. Apparently participation counted the most in gym class. I could make up other homework but I couldn't make up for missing out on climbing the rope.

7. I played guitar in a Top 40 band. We started the band when I was a sophomore in high school and stuck together until I was a senior. The band was called Almost Famous. We played cover songs, mostly. We earned some spending money doing this, if nothing else.

8. When I was in the 7th grade, the bus driver went off and left my brother stranded at the elementary school. I cried all the way home, and when we arrived at my stop, I laid into the driver and told her what I thought of her. The next morning I marched myself down to the principal's office to turn in the bus driver (who had, in the meantime, turned me in for telling her off). The principal did not punish me, but did suggest I not do that again.

9. When I was in the second grade, the teacher would sometimes leave early. When she did, she left me in charge of the entire class. I had to read a book about dinosaurs to everyone. Of course the teacher next door had her door open and was looking in on us, but I felt very special to have been chosen. It meant, of course, I was the teacher's pet and the other kids hated me but at the time I didn't realize that. Ignorance can indeed be bliss.

10. I was an honor student in high school. Mostly, that meant I had a gold tassel at graduation.

11. I was on the debate team for a year. I was not very good at it.

12. My Spanish teacher took several us to Madrid, Spain, and Paris, France, in 1980. It is the only time I've been overseas. It was a fantastic life lesson.

13. I had string puppets from Mexico and wrote a play for them in Spanish. My Spanish class put on the play and somehow we ended up on TV. We put the play on twice, once in Spanish and once in English, and it ran on a local show.


Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here.  I've been playing for a while and this is my 179th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.