I am often amazed at how I can remember the most intricate details of something which happened long ago, but am unable to remember something as simple as what I had from breakfast. It could be because I didn’t actually have breakfast, but that is a topic for another post. In reading Mia’s post – on Brit’s blog (confusing, but it is what it is) – I thought it might be fun to share a few of my memories from elementary school.
My favorite part of school was recess. I loved it. Even in my youth, I needed to run and play hard so that I could clear my head for further learning. It’s no surprise that I now use my lunch hour to do my running as an adult. In elementary school, however, I wasn’t just running.
I remember being told by the yard duty that I couldn’t swing on the monkey bars because my underwear showed. I thought she was so stupid. It wasn’t like you could see anything and my Mom *made* me wear dresses back then. I had to sneak some shorts under my dress in order for the yard duty to leave me alone. But she was back whenever I hung upside down. I guess she thought there was something else that needed hiding. I flipped over before she could stop me and quickly ran to another part of the playground.
Another thing that we did in elementary school at recess involved huddling around the bathroom mirrors. The lights were out and we were calling out to Bloody Mary. Do you remember doing that? “Bloody Mary…Bloody Mary…Bloody Mary” Someone always screamed and swore that she saw *her*. I never did, but I played along. I was too scared not to believe; I figured Mary’d come after me if I didn’t.
And then there were the cooties. I was afraid of those too. One time, Ben N was chasing me around trying to give them to me. He and his gang kept chasing me towards the bathrooms. I didn’t want to go in there as the other girls were taunting Mary again. My solution was to tie Ben up with a jump rope so that he couldn’t get me. It worked…until I got called into the principle’s office. The principle didn’t get why I *had* to do it. He said that there was no such thing as the cooties. Humph! He probably didn’t believe in Bloody Mary either.
EARLY ENTRY DEADLINE REMINDER!