Wild Rumpus
In 1980, since I had a summer birthday, I celebrated my birthday early in school. I wore a big green construction paper birthday crown, with a "5" on it. I felt like Max in Where the Wild Things Are, marching around in my crown. That's still one of my favorite kids' books. I can't figure out though why my crown had a "5" instead of a "6", unless my teacher was being overly literal about the age I was at that exact moment. It never occurred to me before.
My teacher tried to fail me out of Kindergarten, and make me repeat it. I'm not sure what the specifics are, since I wasn't present at he parent meetings about it, but I (and all my friends) find it ironic that someone who went on to graduate 2nd in his class nearly failed Kindergarten.
My family bought an Atari 2600 system. My best friend and I spent hours playing Combat after school. My dad took me to a grocery store across town late one night to buy a copy of Space Invaders, his new favorite game after he'd played it at a family friend's house. He played most of the night on several nights, until he had managed to score high enough to reset to 0, and woke us all up (and the friend of his, over the phone) to spread the news. Over the next couple of years, other games followed, like Circus Atari, Adventure, Pac-Man, Pitfall, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and so on.
I started first grade. In school we had to use the big fat pencils and big fat crayons on the brown, grainy, lined handwriting paper. My writing was awful. I could never wait to get home and use my "normal" sized crayons and pencils, which I wielded just fine.
My dad and I joined the Indian Guides. Every meeting we had a joke time. One week I told I joke I'd heard a friend of my dad's tell. I didn't get it, but I knew it was supposed to be funny. All the Indian Guide dads were a little shocked.
One of my friends went to tell the teacher she "wasn't feeling w...." and promptly threw up all over her. It was an image I'd think about for years when I needed a good giggle.
My teacher tried to fail me out of Kindergarten, and make me repeat it. I'm not sure what the specifics are, since I wasn't present at he parent meetings about it, but I (and all my friends) find it ironic that someone who went on to graduate 2nd in his class nearly failed Kindergarten.
My family bought an Atari 2600 system. My best friend and I spent hours playing Combat after school. My dad took me to a grocery store across town late one night to buy a copy of Space Invaders, his new favorite game after he'd played it at a family friend's house. He played most of the night on several nights, until he had managed to score high enough to reset to 0, and woke us all up (and the friend of his, over the phone) to spread the news. Over the next couple of years, other games followed, like Circus Atari, Adventure, Pac-Man, Pitfall, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and so on.
I started first grade. In school we had to use the big fat pencils and big fat crayons on the brown, grainy, lined handwriting paper. My writing was awful. I could never wait to get home and use my "normal" sized crayons and pencils, which I wielded just fine.
My dad and I joined the Indian Guides. Every meeting we had a joke time. One week I told I joke I'd heard a friend of my dad's tell. I didn't get it, but I knew it was supposed to be funny. All the Indian Guide dads were a little shocked.
One of my friends went to tell the teacher she "wasn't feeling w...." and promptly threw up all over her. It was an image I'd think about for years when I needed a good giggle.