Down Memory Lane

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.

In 4th grade my friend Cindy L and I started up a “Save the Squirrels” campaign. Do you know how all of the poor squirrels’ holes always have dirt covering he entry to their homes? Well, Cindy and I were sure that the janitor was trying to kill all of the squirrels by suffocating them. In an effort to save the squirrels, Cindy and I used our plastic spoons from lunch to clear out the holes. It was a tough job. It seemed like the holes were getting covered up as quickly as we uncovered them. We devoted both of our recesses to the task and even improved the squirrels’ homes at bit. We made additional rooms for them in case they had babies and needed more room.

My favorite recess pastime, when I was in 5th grade, was to race the fasted boy in the school. Eric S was as fast as lightening. He was the fastest runner in the whole entire school. But, I didn’t let that stop me from the challenge. With all of our friends standing on the sidelines, cheering us on, we would line up on one side of the field. Then, when we were signaled to go, we would both run with all of our effort to the other side. The first to cross the line was the winner and Eric won every time EXCEPT once. Yep! I beat him once. Then I never raced him again. I knew that he was still the fastest, but poor Eric was left with just a bit of doubt. It was great. And, I went back to saving squirrels.