Not sure how many of you remember the year you were in grade five. What did you do for fun? How many things did you do in school? What kind of sports programs did you have? Well I am here to tell you that the year I was in grade 5, there was no fun to be had on our school grounds.
The year started out like any other. School started and everyone was having a great time. This was the first time I had been to a school where I did not know anyone. We had moved out of town to 4 mile. The area was ok, and the kids we met were like us, but a new school!!! The first day was scary. Very few of the kids knew me or my sister. We had not had time to meet many people that summer, just a few of the kids that lived on the same road as we did.
I had always been a really good student, at least till now. My teachers had all been women, kind and gentle. Now I was forced into a classroom with a male teacher. I will call him Mr. F. He was big and gruff and had no time for any sissy or girly stuff. He promptly put me in remedial reading. We found out shortly after that, I needed glasses. Was not that I could not read, but could not see well enough to read what little I could see. That started me off on a really crappy foot. Now I was called four eyes. And that was not all. This was the first time I had ever had a perm in my hair, and I looked like I had stuck my finger in a light socket. Can you imagine starting in a new school, getting glasses, permed hair and not knowing anyone. OMG what else could they have done to me. I wanted to crawl under the nearest rock.
Then there was the most dreamy boy.... I can remember seeing him for the first time. Oh what a god. What a beautiful sight to look at. Every time he would look my way, I would blush and turn away. I found out that he took square dancing. Now why would anyone do that? Only nerds and geeks took square dancing. Well I went directly home and demanded to go. Now comes the big crinolines that made your skirt stick straight out. I had no idea that they made things like that. I had to have them. I had to go and take square dancing, he was there. That lasted about a year and then dwindled to me not going anymore, I had found the man of my dreams elsewhere. Funny how when your young your idea of perfection changes from one minute to the next.
Then came the classes. All the classes were the same as in ever other school I had been to, till now. I had to take P.E. on what I thought was a dirt field. Little did I know that was not the case.
The school was set in a huge bunch of trees. They had brought in the bulldozers during the summer to level the playing field. They had done a great job, except for one thing. The field was now covered with small rocks that were everywhere. How were we going to do anything on that field except get cut and scraped up. We were about to find out.
The first P.E. class was outside on the what was to be our beautiful grass covered field, but first the rocks had to go. Each of us was given an area, and a bucket and told that our P.E. class was going to pick up rocks for a while each class. Now we were under the stupid impression that this would be something that would only happen for a short period of time. Silly silly children. This went on for two years. The first year, it was all the bigger rocks. The large ones were put around the edge of the field, while the smaller ones were carted off by the boys in the buckets that were provided for us.
Can you see the kids of today doing that? Can you hear what would come out of their mouths if told that was what they were to do? NOT. The parents would be up in arms and they would be removing their children from that school in a heart beat.
Now we did this with a lot of grumbling and griping, but we did it because we were told we had to. Back then you did not under any circumstances argue, contradict, or refuse to do what you were told. It was nothing for a kid to be sent to the principles office for the strap for mouthing off. Its funny, because if you got the strap at school, most of the time when you got home, you got it worse for being a bad kid. OMG the lawsuits that would take place today!!! First would be child labour laws and child abuse.... I can just see it now. The papers splashed with all the horrible things children were made to do, or things that had happened to them.
In the end, we lived through it and we had a beautiful field that was used until the school was closed very recently. It was a chore that we were privileged to do that lead to a great accomplishment. We did not see it at the time, but did in the years that followed. It was a field of rocks we became very proud of.
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