Three Things: School Days
Today’s questions revolve around education, and the three primary stages for kids in the US: elementary school, middle school, and high school. This can be something you learned, something that happened to you or maybe a story about a friend. It could be the way you looked at the world, a band you were really into, a particular day or how you felt about the entire year.
I guess these questions aren’t limited to things that actually happened in classrooms. Let’s say that anything that happened during that timeframe, either in or out of school, is fair game.
- What’s something that happened to you in elementary school?
- What’s something that happened to you in middle school?
- What’s something that happened to you in high school?
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What’s something that happened to you in elementary school?
I had a terrible crush on a girl named Kim Gustafson. I think this was around 4th grade (at Spring Mill Elementary), though I can’t recall a specific teacher or classroom setting. I do remember that we used to sit close to one another at one point (her last name was Gustafson, my last name was Jung).
I don’t have a clear memory of her before 4th grade, or after that. Maybe this was around in 5th grade, but I can’t be sure. I do know that once middle school kicked in (when a lot of kids split off to different schools), I lost track of her. I never saw her again, even when the area kids met up again in high school.
Kim had brown hair, bangs, and was missing her two front teeth (I think) during the fourth grade. The memories I have of her are very specific… nothing beyond a single year or two in elementary school. I always wondered what had happened to her, and how she just kind of “disappeared” from my memory. I’m guessing her family simply moved away from Indianapolis at some point, but looking back it feels like she was there… and then suddenly was gone.
Years later, while I was getting my MFA in Creative Writing, I found myself thinking back and wondering what ever happened to her. I tried to write a poem about her – it was something mostly dealing with memory and time, but scrapped it after several failed attempts.
What’s something that happened to you in middle school?
There was this thing called Lincoln Essays that many of us got to participate in. I think I was working on this during 7th 8th grade (thanks, Jukka), while attending Westlane Middle School in Mr. Crumley’s Social Studies class. At the time, a few of us got to go to a separate room during his class time to… I’m not sure what. Work on our essays. Do research. Something like that. Whatever it was, we got to go to a separate location and were on our own for the duration of the class period.
My friend Craig Thompson and I used part of that time to roam the halls and got into various bits of mischief. Our walks always took us by the school bookstore (which was a glorified closet with a half-door). The bookstore itself was fairly modest and sold basic school supplies: notebooks and folders, that kind of thing. On the countertop, there were always an assortment of pencils and pens sitting out.
I think it was Henry Karlson who was always working at the bookstore, when Craig and I came by. It’s shameful to admit this, but… Craig and I would ask Henry about prices for things on the shelves and then steal items while his back was turned. We stole a fair amount.
I think somebody caught wind to what was happening, because after a while… the bookstore stopped placing items on the countertop.
I feel badly about this, and don’t know whether Henry got into trouble on our account. I’ve never talked to him about this, but feel like I owe him an apology. I’m not friends with Henry on Facebook, but perhaps I should seek him out.
During that time we were supposed to be working on our Lincoln Essays, I also took a screwdriver and popped off the Girls Locker Room sign near the gym. I kept this hidden for a long while, and eventually brought it to someone’s birthday party. I was a little embarrassed and ended up giving the sign away to someone else at the party. That person eventually paraded it around and took credit for what I had done (which bummed me out, since I didn’t have the balls to claim my own work).
Eventually, Craig and I got caught while we were out and about, roaming the hallways. It was Mr. Crumley, actually, who caught us. The words I recall him saying to me and Craig were: I am so pissed. This was an incredibly disturbing thing to experience – being in 8th grade and having a grown man curse at you.
I was alone at the time, and was ordered to find Craig and rerun to class immediately. There, we sat under the chalkboard, our backs to the wall, facing the rest of the kids. I remember feeling a profound sense of shame. We were then ordered to write a 1,000 or 1,500 word essay explaining what in the heck we were doing with our time. I don’t recall what I wrote down, but I’m sure it was an essay with about 1,499 words full of BS. I would absolutely love to be able to read that essay, today.
// Edit: As a side note – I wrote a poem called Social Studies, based on another experience in Mr. Crumley’s, that I have yet to share. Something I should post up some day here.
What’s something that happened to you in high school?
There was a tradition (which I hope is still active) at North Central High School called Senior Skip Day. This was close to the end of the school year, and a day when Seniors would kind of have their way about the school. It was a day where Seniors might show up early to set up pranks – release crickets, put vaseline on doorknobs, that kind of thing. Usually, the Seniors would hang around for the first hour or so, but then basically ditch out en masse on the rest of the day.
For my Senior year, I recall actually putting on a dress and pretending to be pregnant. Surprisingly, this whole event is kind of hazy to me… and I really wish I had some photos to share, documenting what happened. If memory serves I had a Cabbage Patch Kid stuffed into my dress, and kind of wandered around the main atrium area (near the entrance) at the start of the day.
This area was pretty large – it was in front of the school’s auditorium, and also had a balcony area on the second floor. So if you can imagine it, the space was a really open one. I had a friend with me (but can’t remember exactly who this was), and we had some kind of signal worked out. At a set time, I walked out to the center of the area and yelled something about my water breaking.
On queue, my friend (was it Craig? Kevin?) yelled out to everyone: He’s going in to labor! He’s going to have a baby!. I think I may have been sitting down on the ground at this point, because the next thing I know… several other friends are shouting similar things, and I was suddenly group-lifted onto a nearby table or platform.
More people had gathered due to the noise, both on the ground floor and along the balcony, looking down. Somehow, everyone seemed to understand that: hey, look, that asian guy with long hair is delivering a baby. A thudding chant of Push! Push! filled the air, coming from the onlookers from both floors and this seemed to go on for a solid minute.
Finally, someone pulled the baby from under my dress and held it up to the crowd, a move that would pre-date The Lion King by a full two years. There was thunderous applause and much cheering, from what felt like the entire student body.
Man, what I wouldn’t give for some photos of that day.
So… any stories you’d like to share? No need to ramble on as long as mine, I just kind of got into a groove there. Curious to hear about other people’s school days!
[CC photo via Leo Reynolds]
I remember Kim. She was a hottie. She moved away, right?
I had a traumatic experience for my elementary school days. I started at Spring Mill – loved it. I have a few memories that I still think about from time to time. 1) someone’s mom dressed us up as Cowboys as 1st graders and we danced to the theme of Dallas for the talent show (I have a picture of the group on my FB page, but I have no idea how to make the magic work to put the link here). The next year we were football players and we danced to Queen’s Another One Bites the Dust. I don’t know if anything happened for 3-5 grades, which I will explain why soon. 2) For 1st grade we got to be on the radio. I read something and of course I forget what it was, but it was with Mrs. Kennedy. 3) My first crush on a teacher occurred in the 2nd grade with Miss Moore (I don’t know what her name is now, but I was devastated to learn she got married). 4) I remember going to your parent’s restaurant the Golden Dragon a few times. It was pretty cool. My life changed drastically the summer after the 2nd grade. I found out I would no longer go to Spring Mill and would be forced to go to Nora. The only good thing about Nora was Susan Smith. She was my first kiss.
I went to Northview. I don’t remember much. I got in my first fight (if you can call it that). I was running down the hallway from band. I had my trumpet in my case and my friend, Joe Hoggenbauth, Haugenbottom, something like that (sp?), was behind me, and kicked my foot causing me to trip. I got up and punched him real good in the stomach. We had to go to the principal’s office. He let us go with a warning. I also learned the most “human” way to kill a fish by the psychotic, ex-armyman, science teacher Mr. Solomon. He had a HUGE tank of fresh water local fish in his science room. One of the big blue gills was gasping for breath on the top. He plucked the fish out and threw it forcefully on the ground. After all of the girls stopped shrieking and the boys made sure they saw what they saw he told us that that was the most humane way to kill fish. Lesson learned.
North Central. Hmmm. I don’t remember who it was, but probably Neil Thompson. We were at school afterhours due to some Counterpoint thing. It was during some unstructured time, so we went exploring. We got down in the basement via the stage area and spent a good time running around in the halls down there. Another fun memory was another Counterpoint moment. Felix, you might have been involved. There were a lot of us. Again, during unstructured time, while we were at Showstoppers in Chicago we discovered that the door to the roof of the hotel was not locked. So what do a bunch of high school students do when they have this unprecedented access – through shit off of the building. I think we had balloons for some strange reason, so we dropped water bombs, but we threw a bunch of shit down. Good times.
Aaron Willis (February 17, 2012 at 2:31 pm)