{"id":7569,"date":"2023-04-16T10:45:14","date_gmt":"2023-04-16T17:45:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.leftyparent.com\/blog\/?p=7569"},"modified":"2023-04-16T14:16:33","modified_gmt":"2023-04-16T21:16:33","slug":"clubius-contained-part-8-second-grade-september-1961","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.leftyparent.com\/blog\/2023\/04\/16\/clubius-contained-part-8-second-grade-september-1961\/","title":{"rendered":"Clubius Contained Part 8 – Second Grade (October 1961)"},"content":{"rendered":"

I liked looking out the big windows in my second grade classroom at school. That side of the room was all windows, looking out onto the corner of Jefferson and Fifth streets. There were four corners. One was the school and the other three just had houses. Houses with upstairs parts that grownups called \u201ctwo story\u201d, though I didn\u2019t know what they had to do with stories, one or two. But I liked looking at them and pretending what was behind each of the windows. I also liked looking up Fifth street, until it disappeared between the trees. That was the way you walked to get to Allmendinger Park and then across the Park to get to my house. And when I looked up the street, I thought of all the interesting and fun things I could be doing at home or at the park right now, instead of sitting in this room practicing numbers and \u201cpenmanship\u201d.<\/p>\n

At least my school friends were here too, though only one of them sat next to me. That was my new friend Herbie, who hadn\u2019t been in my first grade class. My old friends from first grade – Amanda, Gabe and Jake – sat in different parts of the room, though we could still see each other and make faces at each other when what the teacher was telling us wasn\u2019t very interesting. We wanted to sit next to each other but the teacher gave us \u201cassigned seats\u201d.<\/p>\n

That girl Mary from first grade, who Amanda didn\u2019t like and Gabe liked to tease, sat right in front of me, so I could see the back of her head and her shoulders all the time. Her hair was that shiny brown like the color of a penny, and she always had one of those \u201cbow\u201d things in her hair that was the same color as her dress. But her hair wasn\u2019t straight like Molly\u2019s hair. It went around in circles, so it kind of came out of her head all over the place instead of going straight down to her shoulders. Like Amanda, she always wore dresses to school, but the dress part on her shoulders was all puffy, and her dresses were usually pink or red. When I didn\u2019t want to look at what the teacher was writing on the chalkboard, sometimes I just looked at Mary\u2019s hair and shoulders. I wondered if Herbie liked her, because he was always looking at her too, though he also teased her a lot which made her really mad.<\/p>\n

Our teacher\u2019s name was \u201cMrs. Camden\u201d. She was nice, but she seemed way more like a regular grownup than our first grade teacher Miss Zimmerman, or \u201cMiss Z\u201d as Gabe called her. When Gabe called our new teacher \u201cMrs. C\u201d, she said she preferred to be \u201cMrs. Camden\u201d, and when Gabe asked her what her first name was, she said, \u201cJust call me Mrs. Camden\u201d. But Amanda liked her, because she liked calling everybody by their \u201cproper names\u201d, that\u2019s what she called your regular name. Amanda called Gabe \u201cGabriel\u201d, but no one else did, not even Mrs. Camden. And Amanda liked Mrs. Camden because she was never silly. Amanda didn\u2019t like most girls because she said they were silly. She said even Miss Zimmerman had been too silly sometimes.<\/p>\n

So we practiced numbers all the time. How bigger numbers had smaller numbers in them, one number on the right side for the \u201cones\u201d in the \u201cones place\u201d, the next number to the left for the \u201ctens\u201d in the \u201ctens place\u201d, and then for the \u201chundreds\u201d in the \u201chundreds place\u201d. I already knew all this stuff because mom had shown me how big numbers worked like that. She even showed me how to write numbers like a \u201cmillion\u201d, or even bigger than that, with those \u201ccomma\u201d things to help you see how big they were. Mom said there was no biggest number, because any big number you could think of, there were always numbers that were bigger, so you could count FOREVER and never run out of more numbers to count.<\/p>\n

And then our teacher kept showing how you \u201cadded\u201d and \u201csubtracted\u201d big numbers where you had to \u201ccarry\u201d or \u201cborrow\u201d, but mom had already shown me that stuff too. The teacher would always write what she called \u201cproblems\u201d on the chalkboard, and then we were supposed to write them on a piece of paper and then figure out the \u201canswer\u201d and write that at the bottom of the problem. She also wanted us to \u201cshow our work\u201d when we did carrying and borrowing. She told us to bring our piece of paper up to her desk when we were done, and then we could look at a book quietly while other kids finished figuring the problems out. I didn\u2019t like it that we had to be quiet so much, and mostly just talk when we raised our hands, or she told us it was okay.<\/p>\n

Amanda, Gabe, Mary and I always tried to be the first one to take our paper with all the problems answered up to our teacher\u2019s desk, because we could tell she really liked that we were so good at doing numbers. It was like a game, and if Amanda, Gabe or I beat Mary, she would make this fierce sound sucking air between her teeth. Amanda made that sound sometimes too, but I never heard a boy do that. But this time, when Mary turned in her piece of paper before me, and walked back to her desk in front of me as I was still figuring them out, she looked at me and smiled like she was saying, \u201cI won this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was easy\u201d, she said, \u201cFor me\u201d. Like she meant that it was harder for me, though it wasn\u2019t. I had just written one of the numbers down wrong, so when I tried to subtract from it and borrow from the hundreds place, it left the hundreds in the top number as \u201c2\u201d and the hundreds number from the bottom to subtract from it was \u201c3\u201d. I got worried, but I looked at the chalkboard again and saw that I had written the top number wrong, so I had to do the problem over again.<\/p>\n

Our teacher would look at all the answers and put a red check by the ones you \u201cgot right\u201d, and a red circle around the ones that you didn\u2019t. Since I was left-handed, it still made me mad that grownups said \u201cright\u201d when something was really \u201ccorrect\u201d, so kids did that too, but I didn\u2019t say anything about it. I almost always got them all correct.<\/p>\n

After everybody finished, she gave them back their papers with the checks and circles, and told kids about the circle ones they got wrong. Then she said it was time for us to \u201cwork on\u201d our \u201cspecial project\u201d.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t like those words \u201cwork on\u201d. That\u2019s what grownups said they did, but they usually didn\u2019t seem to like doing it. They just had to get it done. Kids didn\u2019t \u201cwork on\u201d stuff, they \u201cplayed with\u201d stuff. That was fun!<\/p>\n

Our teacher had been telling us that our country, \u201cAmerica\u201d, was a \u201ccountry of immigrants\u201d. Unless we were \u201cIndians\u201d, our \u201cancestors\u201d came here from other countries, maybe a lot of different other countries. Our \u201cancestors\u201d were like our grandparents, or our grandparents\u2019 grandparents, which Amanda said would be our \u201cgreat, great grandparents\u201d.<\/p>\n

So our teacher had said she wanted all of us to talk to our parents or even our grandparents about what other countries our \u201cancestors\u201d came from. And then we were going to start making a \u201cchart\u201d of WHERE they all came from. She had put a map of the World up on a bulletin board, and she said she would help all of us to use thumbtacks and pieces of string to connect the other countries those ancestors came from to our country, \u201cThe United States of America\u201d, or \u201cAmerica\u201d for short.<\/p>\n

The map was interesting because it was supposed to be the whole world, but it was flat. At home, mom and dad had gotten a \u201cglobe\u201d, which was a map of the \u201cwhole world\u201d that was shaped like a ball that was on this thing so you could turn it around to see all the different parts. I knew from the Tom Swift books that the world was also a planet called \u201cEarth\u201d and it did \u201corbits\u201d around the sun, though when you looked at the sun in the sky, even though you weren\u2019t supposed to, it looked like the sun was going around us instead. And there were other planets you could go to too, like Mars. And you could also go to the Moon, which was pretty much like a planet. But Gabe said that the moon wasn\u2019t really a planet, because it went around the Earth instead of the sun.<\/p>\n

This map was flat and had edges, like those were the ends of the world, because it was supposed to be the whole world. But the globe map didn\u2019t have any edges, because the world, a planet, was like a ball. Mom showed me how you could start from anyplace on the globe and go in any straight direction and you\u2019d go all the way around the world and get back to the place you started. At school, Gabe showed me that with the flat world map, when you went off one side, left or right, you were really on the other side. But it wasn\u2019t that way for the top and bottom of the map, because the top was the \u201cNorth Pole\u201d and the bottom was the \u201cSouth Pole\u201d, and on a globe they were far apart.<\/p>\n

When we found out what other country one of our ancestors came from, we told our teacher and she would help us use thumbtacks to put a piece of string between our \u201cAmerica\u201d country and that other country. Mom had said that her ancestors came from \u201cScotland\u201d, \u201cWales\u201d, \u201cGermany\u201d and \u201cBavaria\u201d, and dad\u2019s came from \u201cPoland\u201d. It was neat seeing all the lines of string going from our country to other countries, mostly ones that were in this place called \u201cEurope\u201d, that was across the \u201cAtlantic Ocean\u201d from us. I had read about \u201coceans\u201d and \u201cseas\u201d in the Treasure Island book, and also in Tom Swift books, but I had never seen one for real, though I pretended about them all the time. I had seen lakes before. I figured that oceans and seas were like super giant lakes.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

\u201cOkay\u201d, our teacher said, \u201cRecess time. Time to go outside and run around the playground and get all that energy out of your bodies. Everybody line up by the door.\u201d Most of the kids moved quickly to the door so they could be first or line up next to their friends. Herbie, Gabe and I did. Mary\u2019s friends ran over to the door and made a space between them for Mary. It was like she was in charge of them, like their general. Amanda was last to line up. She didn\u2019t care about being first or who she lined up next to.<\/p>\n

Our teacher went to the door and turned and looked at all of us standing there, waiting to run outside and play.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow remember\u201d, she said, \u201cTo be quiet and WALK in the hallway and on the sidewalk by the street until you get to the playground. Then you can RUN to your heart\u2019s content.\u201d She said the first part serious, and the second part just a tiny bit silly, which was as silly as she ever got. She opened the door and the kids in front of me tried to move fast, but do it like they were walking. But once they went out the big glass doors to the sidewalk by the street they started running, and some were yelling too. I ran too once I got through the big doors. Amanda was the only one that just walked the whole way, watching all of us ahead of her running.<\/p>\n

Gabe, Jake, Herbie and I ran towards the big tunnel tube on the far away part of the playground, but Mary and her friends had already gotten there. They were pretty good runners even though they were wearing dresses. The other girls were already inside, and Mary stood by the open part on one side and looked at us three boys stopping and breathing a lot from running.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo boys allowed\u201d, said one of the other girls from inside the giant tube. \u201cYeah\u201d, said the others. Mary looked at me and smiled.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it was just me, Cooper\u201d, she said, \u201cI\u2019d let you in even though you\u2019re a boy.\u201d But then looking at Gabe, Jake and Herbie she said, \u201cBut not the rest of you. Sorry!\u201d<\/p>\n

Gabe wrinkled his nose and said, \u201cI wouldn\u2019t want to be in there with all your cooties!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s fine with me\u201d, said Mary, making a silly smile. She sat down on the sand with her legs together and carefully crawled into the tube, holding her dress down so we couldn\u2019t see her underwear.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can see your underwear\u201d, Herbie said, even though he couldn\u2019t, but I guess just to make Mary mad.<\/p>\n

The other girls in the tube did that giggle laugh.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou shut up Herbie, you CAN NOT!\u201d Mary said fiercly.<\/p>\n

Herbie\u2019s eyes twinkled, like he had a sneaky plan. \u201cYes I can\u201d, he said, \u201cThey\u2019re pink!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey ARE NOT\u201d, said Mary from inside the tube, \u201cIt just shows you didn\u2019t see them because they\u2019re white. HA HA!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo Mary told me she\u2019s wearing white underwear under her dress\u201d, Herbie said, making a sneaky smile.<\/p>\n

\u201cI heard it too\u201d, said Gabe, liking Herbie\u2019s sneaky plan, \u201cShe told you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mary made a strange growling noise and sounded like she was almost crying when she said, \u201cYou two leave me alone, get out of here or I\u2019ll tell Mrs. Camden!\u201d<\/p>\n

Amanda finally walked up. \u201cHerbert and Gabriel\u201d, she said, \u201cMary\u2019s right, that\u2019s not very nice!\u201d<\/p>\n

Herbie and Gabe looked at her like that didn\u2019t make any sense. Gabe said, \u201cBut you don\u2019t like Amy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amanda looked at the two of them for a minute. She wasn\u2019t smiling or looking silly or mad. \u201cIt\u2019s still not very nice\u201d, she said, \u201cI don\u2019t talk about YOUR underwear!\u201d<\/p>\n

That was interesting, because usually when somebody didn\u2019t like somebody else, then you figured they would not say nice things to them. But Amanda didn\u2019t think that was okay. Amanda didn\u2019t LIKE Amy, but she still talked to help her when somebody did something she thought was bad. But Herbie would say bad things to other kids he didn\u2019t like.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell\u201d, said Herbie, climbing up on top of the tube and sitting down and looking at the rest of us, \u201cWe\u2019ve caught the girls in our tube trap.\u201d<\/p>\n

I heard Mary\u2019s voice from inside the tube, \u201cYou HAVE NOT, Herbie!\u201d<\/p>\n

Then Gabe climbed up on the tube and sat next to him and said, \u201cAnd we\u2019ve turned on an invisible force field at both ends so they can\u2019t get out.\u201d I liked that Gabe was pretending like he was Tom Swift.<\/p>\n

So I climbed up on the tube and sat and figured I would do that pretending too. \u201cThis is our castle and we captured them in our dungeon\u201d, I said. Older kids in the park sometimes pretended that the monkey bars were a castle and the bottom part that was like a jail was called the \u201cdungeon\u201d. Amanda looked at us three boys now sitting on the tube and shook her head.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know boys\u201d, said Mary\u2019s voice from underneath us now, \u201cWe can get out whenever we want.\u201d She said \u201cboys\u201d like we were on the other team and she was being fierce, but like she still liked us too. Boys like Herbie and Gabe liked to tease her, but they still wanted her to say things to them and maybe even like them too. All the boys thought she was the prettiest girl in class. I guess I did too. I think other girls liked Mary too because she was extra pretty, except for Amanda. Grownup men even sang songs on the radio about \u201cpretty girls\u201d, and sometimes I could hear mom or dad singing those songs too when they heard them.<\/p>\n

I always thought kids were on one team and grownups were on the other team. That\u2019s how it seemed with all the kids on my street or that lived near my house. Kids were in charge in the park, but grownups were in charge at home. But here at school even though there were way more kids than grownups, grownups were in charge ALL the time. Even at recess, when kids could do pretty much what they wanted, still grownup teachers were always watching us. And if some kids got mad at other kids, usually girls getting mad at boys like Mary did, they would tell those grownups who would then try to fix things. Or maybe they would just say they\u2019d tell the grownups to make the other kids stop.<\/p>\n

Girls and boys seemed like they were on DIFFERENT teams here at school. Most girls, except Amanda, only played with other girls when we went out at recess. Boys played with other boys. When I thought about it more, it was kind of that way in the park too. Boys played mostly with other boys and girls with other girls. Nobody wanted to get \u201ccooties\u201d, though Margie and Amanda said that \u201ccooties\u201d weren’t real.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s like in the park, us boys didn\u2019t have to do anything with girls if we didn\u2019t want to, so we didn\u2019t worry about them and they just played with other girls. On the swings when boys were on the merry-go-round, or in one bunch of lilac bushes when boys were in another bunch. But maybe you could play with SOME girls if all the other boys knew they were \u201cTomboy\u201d girls like Molly. Or if you teased them a lot while you were playing with them, and they teased you back. But not in a mean way, but in a fun way like a pretend other team, but not a real one.<\/p>\n

But at school, we had to be around girls A LOT. In our classroom we had to sit next to them and were around them all the time. Most girls talked and laughed different than boys. They talked about different things and liked different shows on TV or different songs on the radio. If you were around them and talking, when the teacher let us talk, you could start talking and laughing like girls and liking what they liked. But if you started talking or laughing that same way around other boys, then they would say you had \u201ccooties\u201d, which was like they were telling you if you weren\u2019t careful, then you might become a \u201csissy\u201d. That was bad, because other boys wouldn\u2019t play with you anymore.<\/p>\n

So to stay safe from ever being a sissy, you and the other boys had to make girls the other team. You had to tease them, maybe just in a fun way like Gabe teased Amanda, if you could figure out how to do that, or in a mean way, like Herbie teased Mary, if you couldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

So us three boys were now sitting on the tube with Mary and her three girl friends inside it. Amanda stood by the side of the tube looking at us. She shook her head.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think castles had force fields\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe Tom Swift set up his laboratory in an old castle\u201d, Gabe said, looking at me, smiling and nodding, like his pretending was helping my pretending, \u201cAnd he uses the dungeon for badguys.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell\u201d, said Amanda, making just the tiniest smile, \u201cFor silly girls this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Herbie leaned down on the top part of the giant tube so he could see inside the open part at the end.<\/p>\n

\u201cYep\u201d, he said, \u201cThe force field is working. It\u2019s keeping all the silly girls in our dungeon.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMind your own business, Herbie\u201d, said that girl Diane, who was in the tube closest to Herbie. She was Mary\u2019s best friend and always helped her. \u201cWe can get out whenever we want to\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI bet you can\u2019t\u201d, said Herbie.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re just trying to trick us\u201d, said Diane, \u201cBut you can\u2019t! HA, HA!\u201d<\/p>\n

Then I could hear the four of them in the tube talking to each other like they were making a secret plan, but not loud enough so I could hear the words. Then the four of them started doing that kind of talking singing together.<\/p>\n

Gabe and Amanda sitting in a tree
\nK I S S I N G
\nFirst comes love
\nThen comes marriage
\nThen comes baby in a baby carriage<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Then they all did that giggle laugh.<\/p>\n

I looked at Gabe and Amanda. Gabe pushed his mouth together and looked a little bit worried. Amanda looked up at the sky and shook her head and made a little bit bigger smile than she had before.<\/p>\n

\u201cSilly, silly girls\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah\u201d, said Gabe, but he still looked worried, like he didn\u2019t want anyone to know he liked Amanda. But AMANDA didn\u2019t look worried.<\/p>\n

Grownups had to do that kissing and love stuff, I thought, because they had babies. Mom had David, but I couldn\u2019t imagine mom and dad doing that stuff. Maybe the kissing but not that other \u201clove\u201d stuff, which I still hadn\u2019t figured out what it was. I\u2019d seen an older boy and girl in the Lilac bushes, and when I snuck up on them to see what they were doing, they were doing that kissyface kissing stuff. It was like they were eating each other\u2019s mouth. It seemed really strange to me, but the two of them seemed to like it A LOT. I figured they did it hiding in the bushes because they weren\u2019t supposed to. I imagined what it would be like to do that with Molly, since she liked pretending sometimes we were a mom and dad. I imagined Molly and I in our pajamas sleeping next to each other in the same bed. I liked imagining that.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

When I came back to school after lunch our teacher said it was time to go to the \u201cassembly\u201d in the \u201cauditorium\u201d. We lined up by the door and then she walked us all the way down the big hallway to that place with the other doors going outside where the hallway turned left. I remembered that was the place where mom and I had first come last year to talk to that older woman about me going to first grade instead of kindergarten. It seemed like a really long time ago. Also down in this part of the school was the library room where we could look at and read books. My school was a really big place and I thought that it was neat, though I\u2019d only seen a few of the rooms.<\/p>\n

So on the other side of the big hallway, after it turned left, were two doors right next to each other that opened up into that super giant \u201cauditorium\u201d place. Part of it was kind of like those \u201cmovie theater\u201d places that mom or dad had taken me to see movies at, with long lines of chairs. The chairs were hooked to the floor like the chairs in the movie theater, but they were made out of wood instead of metal, and didn\u2019t have that soft puffy chair stuff. And instead of the flat white front part where you saw the movie, there was a whole big upper part with those giant curtain things on either side. There were already lots of kids from other classes sitting in some of the long lines of chairs. Some of them looked a lot older than the kids in my class.<\/p>\n

In the middle of the big upper front part was this wood thing that kind of looked like a desk except it was taller. One of the other grownup teachers was standing behind it, waving her hands, and telling all of us kids to \u201cquietly find a seat please\u201d.<\/p>\n

Our teacher pointed down a long line of chairs and told the kid from our class that was at the front of our line to go down to the end of the \u201crow\u201d and sit on the last seat before the \u201caisle\u201d, which was the middle part with no chairs. She sent the kid behind that first kid down the row behind the one the first kid went down. Since a lot of us in line were next to our friends, how she made us go to different rows split us up, which I think she did on purpose. I ended up sitting next to Amanda and Mary. Gabe, Mary\u2019s best friend Diane, and Herbie were in the chairs in front of us. Mary was wearing one of those dresses she always wore with the puffy shoulders. She turned her head and looked at me, thinking.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell\u201d, she said, \u201cIf I have to sit next to a boy I\u2019d rather it be you than those other two\u201d, and then she actually smiled at me and her eyes twinkled a little. Herbie turned his head to look back at her and stuck his tongue out.<\/p>\n

\u201cHerbert\u201d, said Amanda who was watching all this, \u201cOh my god! That\u2019s disgusting!\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally all the kids from the different \u201cclasses\u201d were sitting down, though all the teachers stood by the end of rows of chairs so they could see what all us kids were doing, and make sure we weren\u2019t doing anything wrong or bad.<\/p>\n

Then the grownup woman up on that front part behind that really high desk thing said, \u201cSo I see that everyone has found a seat. Are all our students accounted for?\u201d I looked around and saw all the teachers standing and looking at all the kids in their class. Some I could see were pointing and counting with their mouthes and then nodding their heads.<\/p>\n

\u201cGood\u201d, she said, \u201cSo my name is Mrs. Rodney. Miss Poindexter and I teach third grade here at Bach School and the students in our classes have been working very hard on a program that they will perform for you today.\u201d<\/p>\n

She put her hand out and said, \u201cSo will the students in my class and Miss Poindexter\u2019s class please start coming up on the stage, starting with the first row and remembering to stay in line\u201d, she said. This other grownup teacher, Miss Poindexter I guess, raised her hand and the kids in the row she was standing by stood up and walked in a line up the little stairway up to the \u201cstage\u201d part in front of us and then started climbing up the giant stairs behind her and then walking down to the end of that highest step. Then more kids behind them climbed up to the second highest step and walked down to the end. Miss Poindexter came up the stairs behind the last kid. Finally all four of the long steps had kids lined up on them. They all looked a little older than we were because they were in third grade, and we were only in second grade. The two grownup teachers, Miss Poindexter and Mrs. Rodney, now stood together behind that tall desk thing in front of all the kids standing behind them on that staircase thing.<\/p>\n

Miss Poindexter said, \u201cMrs. Rodney\u2019s class and my own have been learning about music and how to sing together as a choir. So today we would like to sing for all of you a couple songs we have learned. We hope you will enjoy listening to those songs as much as we enjoy singing them. The first is about the joy of exploring the outdoors and the second is about marching for something you believe in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then Miss Poindexter walked back over to and down the little stairs in front of the \u201cstage\u201d. Mrs. Rodney turned to the kids standing on the stairs behind her and asked, \u201cIs everyone ready?\u201d Most of the kids nodded.<\/p>\n

Miss Poindexter sat at this piano by the front of the stage and used her finger to make it make the same sound over and over. The kids sang that same sound.<\/p>\n

\u201cOkay\u201d she said, and started making the song on the piano. Some of the kids started singing right away, and once they did, others started too\u2026<\/p>\n

I love to go a-wandering
\nAlong the mountain track
\nAnd as I go, I love to sing
\nMy knapsack on my back<\/p>\n

Val-deri, val-dera
\nVal-deri, val-dera
\nHa, ha, ha, ha, ha
\nVal-deri, val-dera
\nMy knapsack on my back<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Hearing all their voices singing together I could see in their eyes how a lot of them really liked it. I mean it was the grownup teachers in charge of it, but it was us kids who were doing the singing. I liked it too, and wished I could sing with other kids like that. I always liked singing at home with dad and my brother, but with a bunch of other kids my age would be even better. And if we could pick our own songs to sing that would be even better than that.<\/p>\n

Songs had \u201cverses\u201d. Dad talked about those when he sang to us sometimes. Things were made from parts. I made forts from the Lincoln Log \u201clog\u201d parts, and spaceships from the Tinker Toy sticks and circles parts. Books had words, sentences and chapters. Songs had words, and some sentences too, but verses instead of chapters. Finally the kids sang the last verse of this song\u2026<\/p>\n

Oh, may I go a-wandering
\nUntil the day I die
\nOh, may I always laugh and sing
\nBeneath the clear blue sky<\/p>\n

Val-deri, val-dera
\nVal-deri, val-dera
\nHa, ha, ha, ha, ha
\nVal-deri, val-dera
\nBeneath the clear blue sky<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Then Mrs. Rodney looked at all the kids singing and put up both her hands with her fingers pointing up, and then pointed both fingers at the kids and they sang that last sentence one more time but really slowly\u2026<\/p>\n

Beneath the clear blue sky<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I thought about the words of that last verse of the song, \u201cuntil the day I die\u201d. People died. I didn\u2019t know anybody that had died, but mom and dad did, and some of my friends did too. Marybeth and Hannah\u2019s grandfather died. Real soldiers that got shot or blown up in wars died. Kids pretended that all the time when we played war, either with toy soldiers or our bodies in the park. But then when we were done playing, we put the soldiers in their box and we made them alive again the next time we played. Or after we pretend died in the park we would get up and be alive again for the next pretend thing. But we would all be really dead someday, I guess. That was hard to think about so I started thinking about something else.<\/p>\n

So I thought about the words, \u201cmay I always laugh and sing beneath the clear blue sky\u201d. I thought about the park. Even when the sky wasn\u2019t clear or blue, the park was always fun. We didn\u2019t sing in the park, but we played. So maybe, if I was doing the words for that song, I would sing it, \u201cMay I always laugh and play\u201d instead, because even though I really liked singing, no one usually did singing in the park. Though sometimes, if some kids were listening to one of those \u201ctransistor radios\u201d they would sing the song the people were singing on the radio.<\/p>\n

When the song ended all the grownup teachers started clapping, and some kids did too. Mary sitting next to me started clapping and looked at me like I should be clapping too. I could see that all the kids that had just sang the song liked it that people were clapping, so I started to clap too, and Mary looked at me and smiled, and I looked back at her and smiled at her as I clapped. I guess that was what you were supposed to do after you watched people sing.<\/p>\n

The third-grade kids sang this other song too, which sounded more like a soldier song because it was about marching\u2026<\/p>\n

Sing with me, I’ll sing with you
\nAnd so we will sing together
\nSo we will sing together
\nSo we will sing together
\nSing with me, I’ll sing with you
\nAnd so we will sing together
\nAs we march along<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Then all the kids started pretending they were marching but they didn\u2019t go anywhere. They just pretended to march by lifting their feet and all banging them down on the giant stairs at the same time while they sang. It was really neat.<\/p>\n

We are marching to Pretoria, Pretoria, Pretoria
\nWe are marching to Pretoria, Pretoria, Hoorah!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

After they started singing the third verse I figured out that it was one of those songs like the \u201cbottles of beer on the wall\u201d song that we sang with dad when we went to Silver Lake and that real Hell place. You just changed one word and sang all the other words the same. If you knew what the one different word was going to be, like \u201csing\u201d, \u201cwalk\u201d or \u201cdance\u201d, then you could sing each next verse.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

After more practicing \u201cpenmanship\u201d and \u201ccursive\u201d writing, which was really boring, the bell finally rang and school was done for the day. It always surprised and scared me when it rang, even when I was watching the clock and knew it was going to. Mrs. Camden didn\u2019t make us all line up after the bell rang but always said, \u201cPlease WALK out of the room and use your QUIET voices until you get outside.\u201d Most of the kids at least did that until they were out in the hallway.<\/p>\n

I had some money so I went over to that little store across the street from our school to buy some candy. I had a dime, so I could buy two regular candy bars if I wanted to, or one of those giant candy bars. Or I could buy one regular candy bar and five pieces of bubble gum. Or even just ten pieces of bubble gum, that would last me the longest, but I couldn\u2019t really swallow it, which was part of the fun about eating a candy bar. I tried swallowing bubble gum but it felt really strange and I didn\u2019t like it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat are you going to get?\u201d asked a voice behind me. I looked and it was Mary from my class. I looked around to see if any of the boys I knew could see me talking to her. I didn\u2019t want any of them to say I liked her or had cooties.<\/p>\n

She looked around too and asked, \u201cAre you looking to see if any of your friends can see us talking?\u201d I looked at her and didn\u2019t know what to say, but I could tell she could figure it out that I was worried about that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI should be mad at you\u201d, she said, \u201cIt\u2019s not very nice.\u201d Then she looked around, \u201cI don\u2019t think any of them are here.\u201d I looked around again and figured she was right. None of the boys I knew were around.<\/p>\n

I knew I better say something so I said, \u201cI think I\u2019ll get a regular candy bar and five pieces of bubble gum.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhich candy bar are you going to get?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe a Milky Way or a Snickers\u201d, I said. She nodded, but then looked at me like I should now ask HER what SHE was going to get.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t ask, and she blew air out of her mouth like she was a little bit mad that I didn\u2019t. \u201cWell I\u2019m going to get Red Hots\u201d, she said, \u201cThey\u2019re spicy and make my tongue red.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah\u201d, I said, \u201cI like those sometimes too. You can eat them slower so they taste good for a longer time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u201d, she said, nodding, but then, \u201cYou\u2019re nicer than those other boys. Gabe, Jake, Theo, and especially that Herbie. He\u2019s a total pest, trying to see my underwear.\u201d Then she looked me in the eyes like she was trying to figure me out and said quietly, \u201cYou would never do that. Try to see my underwear.\u201d<\/p>\n

She wanted me to shake my head, and I wanted to too, but I started thinking about when Molly and I got naked together over a year ago. That was one of the most fun things I ever did, and I think Molly liked it too. We never told anybody and we never did it again, but we knew that we HAD done it because we wanted to and that made us even better friends.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat can I get you son?\u201d The grownup voice made me jump. I turned my head and the guy that worked at the store was looking at me, waiting.<\/p>\n

Mary blew air out of her mouth as I looked at that guy instead of her. \u201cI guess you boys stick together.\u201d<\/p>\n

While I told the guy that worked there that I wanted a Snickers Bar and five pieces of Bazooka Joe bubble gum. As I took my stuff in a little brown bag and gave him the dime, I heard Mary behind me blow even more air out of her mouth and say, \u201cSpeak of the devil\u201d, and I turned and saw Herbie come through the doorway into the store. I could tell he saw Mary and me.<\/p>\n

\u201cMajor cooties alert\u201d, he said, \u201cWatch out Coop!\u201d<\/p>\n

Mary shook her head slowly and growled a little inside her mouth. She looked at me for just a second like she wished I was different than I was, and that other boys were different too.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not listening to this\u201d, she said, \u201cRed Hots are not worth it\u201d, and she walked by Herbie and without looking at him and said, \u201cPest\u201d, and then went out the doorway and quickly walked down the sidewalk away from the store.<\/p>\n

Herbie watched her walk away and said, \u201cIt\u2019s fun making her mad, she gets all riled up.\u201d Then he turned to me and asked, \u201cWhat were you two talking about?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing\u201d, I said, not wanting to tell him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw you two talking from across the street\u201d, he said, \u201cShe was smiling. What did she say?\u201d<\/p>\n

I figured we didn\u2019t say much, so I decided I could tell him. \u201cShe just asked me what kind of candybar I was going to get, and then told me she was going to get Red Hots.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe likes Red Hots?\u201d, he said, \u201cCan\u2019t wait to tell everyone about that!\u201d<\/p>\n

I nodded and tried to smile like that was a pretty neat way to tease her, but I was thinking that I didn\u2019t like being teased so maybe Mary didn\u2019t either. I guess Herbie could see that I was looking kind of worried.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s okay\u201d, he said, \u201cShe likes it when boys tease her.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell\u201d, said the grownup guy that worked there, looking at Herbie, \u201cI hope you\u2019re going to buy something son, since you lost me a sale.\u201d<\/p>\n

Herbie put out his hands and said, \u201cI don\u2019t have any money.\u201d The guy now blew air through his teeth which made kind of a whistling sound and shook his head. There were two other kids standing behind Herbie now. The guy waved his finger at the two of them to come up and said, \u201cAll right, next customer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Herbie and I left the store and he said that he was headed to Allmendinger Park instead of going home, so he\u2019d walk with me. I gave him a bite of my Snickers Bar and two pieces of bubblegum. Kids did stuff like that for each other.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo Roger Maris hit home run number sixty-one yesterday\u201d, Herbie said, \u201cHe beat Babe Ruth.\u201d He shook his head and said it again, \u201cHe beat Babe Ruth.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI know\u201d, I said, because I liked baseball too, and tried to know stuff about it. Dad had told me all about it because he really liked baseball. So I told Herbie what dad told me, though I didn\u2019t tell Herbie that dad had told me. I wanted him to think I figured it all out by myself<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Babe Ruth hit 60 they only played 154 games\u201d, I said, \u201cNow they play 162, but it still counts.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHunh\u201d, said Herbie, \u201cI didn\u2019t know that.\u201d I nodded and felt extra smart, though it was only pretend extra smart.<\/p>\n

We decided to walk up Fourth Street instead of Fifth Street, which was how I usually walked home. It was neat how all these streets had number names, and they were next to each other like you were counting. If you walked from school there was Fifth Street, then Fourth, then Third, the one Herbie lived on. He said that if you kept walking that way there was Second then First. I asked him if there was a \u201cZeroth\u201d street, and he smiled and shook his head and said that one was called \u201cAshley\u201d. Going the other way I knew there was Sixth and Seventh, but I had never seen an Eighth Street, but Herbie said there was one but it was kind of secret, like Wurster Park.<\/p>\n

We walked up Fourth Street so we could walk through that Wurster Park. I always liked that \u201csecret park\u201d hiding behind the houses, since Molly and I rode our bicycles through it that day when her dad moved to a new house and Molly wanted to find it. Herbie liked it too, because you could see all the Ann Arbor \u201cdowntown\u201d buildings from the top part of the park. We decided to stop for a little while at that top part and sit in the grass and look at all the faraway buildings. All the big \u201ccollege\u201d buildings looked like they were all together like one giant fort, with the tower one with the big clock on it in the middle.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe tower with the clock is my favorite\u201d, said Herbie, \u201cEspecially since you showed me the way to figure out what time it is by just looking at the small hand. All that big hand stuff makes it too complicated.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI know\u201d, I said, \u201cI still can\u2019t figure out why the hour hand is the little one and the minute hand is the big one, because hours are bigger and more important than minutes. They tell you what part of the day you\u2019re in.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I can\u2019t figure that out either\u201d, said Herbie, shaking his head, a lot of things grownups had done didn\u2019t make sense.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo your mom and dad fight?\u201d he asked, looking off at the buildings but not at me, \u201cYou know, talking fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes\u201d, I said, \u201cMom gets mad at dad and yells at him.\u201d I\u2019d never told that to any other kids I knew, but they never asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cHunh\u201d, he said, thinking, \u201cMy dad always gets mad at my mom and he says really bad stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLike what?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n

Herbie shook his head and pushed his lips together then said, \u201cI don\u2019t want to say it. It\u2019s just real bad.\u201d I nodded. I didn\u2019t know what to say next. I thought about mom and wondered if she was really bad too. She didn\u2019t seem bad most of the time, when she was not being mad at dad. I didn\u2019t like thinking about that.<\/p>\n

We checked for cars and then we walked across Madison Street. Grownups always told us to cross at the corners, but we felt more like big kids crossing in the middle. We walked up through the trees into Wurster Park. The yellow leaves that already fell out of the trees crunched as we walked on and kicked them. They smelled a little bit burned but sweet, like fall.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you like Mrs. Camden?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know\u201d, I said, \u201cI guess she\u2019s nice, but I liked Miss Zimmerman better, she wasn\u2019t so much like a regular grownup.\u201d Herbie thought about that for a minute.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut you like school, don\u2019t you?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know\u201d, I said again, \u201cI guess sometimes it\u2019s okay, when we get to go to the library or do recess, when she isn\u2019t telling us what to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut she\u2019s supposed to do that, cuz she\u2019s the teacher\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I guess so\u201d, I said. I wondered if that was really true, since mom and dad didn\u2019t tell me what to do all the time, and Miss Z only told us what to do sometimes.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt least when teachers tell you to do stuff they\u2019re nice about it\u201d, he said, \u201cAnd they like it when you do stuff right.\u201d I nodded, but thought that he should say \u201ccorrect\u201d instead of \u201cright\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI see how much you like it when you get your paper back and you got everything right and Mrs. Camden\u2019s so proud of you\u201d, he said. Herbie was right about that, I didn\u2019t want anybody to think I wasn\u2019t good, specially mom and dad, so I nodded, though I didn\u2019t talk about that.<\/p>\n

\u201cExcept for spelling\u201d, I said, \u201cI\u2019m always bad at that. And penmanship and writing in cursive too.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut you\u2019re not supposed to be good at everything\u201d, he said, \u201cThat\u2019s why you have to go to school.\u201d That was the bad part, I thought, that I HAD to go.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes\u201d, I said, \u201cWhen we have to do all that stuff to \u2018practice\u2019 spelling or cursive or adding and subtracting, I look out the windows in our room and see the street that goes up to Allmendinger Park and I just want all of us to go there, where the kids are in charge instead of the grownups.\u201d He nodded and thought about that.<\/p>\n

We got to the other end of Wurster Park and were back on the regular sidewalks and finally got to Almendinger Park. Other kids who were done with school for the day were already there, talking and playing.<\/p>\n

An older kid had a transistor radio playing loud. It sounded like older girls singing. Their voices were loud and sharp. First a couple girls with high voices sang, \u201cWait!\u201d, then another girl with a lower louder voice sang, \u201cWhoa yeah wait a minute Mister Postman.\u201d<\/p>\n

The older boy yelled out to his friends, \u201cHere it is! Here\u2019s that song again!\u201d He looked at Herbie and me, nodding his head pointing at his little radio standing on a picnic table. The song kept going with those two girls singing back and forth with that other girl\u2026<\/p>\n

(Wait!) Whoa yeah wait a minute Mister Postman
\n(Wait!) Way way way wait Mister Postman<\/p>\n

(Mister Postman look and see) Whoa yeah
\n(Is there a letter in the bag for me)
\nPlease please Mister po oh oh ostman
\n(It\u2019s been a mighty long time) Oh Yeah
\n(Since I\u2019ve heard from that boyfriend of mine)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I had heard the song before on the radio. I figured they were older girls singing and not grownup women because they sang about her \u201cboyfriend\u201d. Older kids had boyfriends and girlfriends, Margie talked about them and the older kids in the park did too. And even the other kids my age would tease each other about having a girlfriend or a boyfriend. I don\u2019t think grownup women HAD boyfriends, except maybe Molly\u2019s mom. They had \u201chusbands\u201d. Even mom called dad her \u201chusband\u201d when she told other grownups about him who didn\u2019t know who he was.<\/p>\n

When grownups sang on the radio they were smoother, like that Frank Sinatra guy, like everything was okay and they just liked to sing about it. But when older kids sang on the radio they sounded rougher, and more worried or more mad or more excited, depending on what they were singing about.<\/p>\n

There must be some words today yeah (wah oo)
\nFrom my boyfriend so far away hey
\nPlease Mister Postman Look and see (wah oo)
\nIs there a letter, a letter for me<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It was like that one girl and the other two were talking to each other, but they were singing instead of regular talking. I hadn\u2019t heard anything like that before but it was pretty neat.<\/p>\n

I’ve been standin’ here waitin’ Mister Postman (wait wah oo)
\nSo oh oh patiently (wait wait wah oo)
\nFor just a card, or just a letter (wah oo)
\nSay he needs me send it on to me<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Then they sang that one main part again. Most songs were like that. They had that \u201cverse\u201d part, that had different words each time, then this other part where they sang the same words they had already sung. Even the songs dad sang to us at night, the college songs and the war songs, were like that. Though this time they sang MOST of the same words but sang them a little bit differently\u2026<\/p>\n

Please Mister Postman
\n(Please Mister Postman, look and see) oh yeah
\n(Is there a letter in your bag for me?)
\nPlease Please Mister Po oh oh oh ostman
\n(It\u2019s been a mighty long time) Oh yeah
\n(Since I\u2019ve heard from that boyfriend of mine)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I guess if you were a boy and you had a real girlfriend, not just one your friends teased you about, you were supposed to write her letters when you went somewhere else so she wouldn\u2019t get worried that you didn\u2019t want her to be your girlfriend anymore. I wondered if Molly thought I was her boyfriend and wanted me to write her letters, like when I couldn\u2019t come over on Saturday\u2026<\/p>\n

So many days you passed me by
\nYou saw the tears standin’ in my eye
\nYou wouldn’t stop to make me feel better
\nBy leavin’ me a card or a letter<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And then the last part of the song they just sang \u201cwait a minute\u201d over and over and over again until their voices got so you couldn\u2019t hear them anymore, like they were walking away from you.<\/p>\n

It was a really neat song and I liked it more each time I heard it. Herbie liked it too, because we both just stopped walking and listened to it until it was over. We nodded to the older kid that it was a good song, and he smiled and nodded back. We were in the park where kids were in charge, and I didn\u2019t feel worried about stuff like I did at school, with all those grownups around checking on you.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

That night, when dad came into David\u2019s and my room to sing songs at bedtime, I told him about those two songs I heard at school. He didn\u2019t know the \u201cwandering\u201d one, and I couldn\u2019t really sing it very well. But he did know the \u201cMarching to Pretoria\u201d one, and he and David and I sang it. We did a \u201cmarch\u201d verse, a \u201csing\u201d verse, and a \u201cdrink\u201d verse. Then David, who really liked riding his tricycle now, wanted to do a \u201cride\u201d verse, which we did. All three of us were singing the bedtime songs now. I remembered when I was a little kid like David and I first started singing along with dad and not just listening.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t tell dad about the \u201cMister Postman\u201d song. I figured that one was just for kids and not one that grownups would want to hear or could figure out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I liked looking out the big windows in my second grade classroom at school. That side of the room was all windows, looking out onto the corner of Jefferson and Fifth streets. There were four corners. One was the school and the other three just had houses. Houses with upstairs parts that grownups called \u201ctwo […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1777,13,1774,1773,1799,1800,1775],"class_list":["post-7569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventure","tag-1960s","tag-ann-arbor","tag-autobiography","tag-childhood","tag-free-range-kid","tag-growing-up","tag-memoir"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leftyparent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leftyparent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leftyparent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leftyparent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leftyparent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7569"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.leftyparent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7569\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7572,"href":"https:\/\/www.leftyparent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7569\/revisions\/7572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leftyparent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leftyparent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leftyparent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}