The K-12 Meme

This is a fairly simple meme, for those of us who proudly display our high school diplomas, or GED certificates. List something you remember from each grade of school:

Kindergarten - I just remember moving like halfway thru the year. The school I went to the first half of the year is about to be torn down now. And I remember playing kickball a lot.

1st grade - About the only thing I remember from first grade is sitting behind some kid who would always steal my pencils and other supplies while we were out of the room. And not just regular pencils, but the really cool, big fat ones.

2nd grade- My Mom was picking me up from school one day and told me that President Reagan had been shot. I went back inside to tell my teacher and she didn't believe me. It traumatized me because I was very honest. The next day she apologized to me in front of the class, which was just gay.

3rd grade - Hmm. I remember the first day of third grade, this kid, JO, was in the hall crying. I'm thinking, dude, we're in third grade now. Grow up. Crying is sooo first grade. I was also in the same class with the guy who is now like known for being a local drug lord.

4th grade - I kinda thought my 4th grade teacher was hot. Miss Thompson. Oh yes. Also got into a fight with this kid, PT. He slapped me, like girl slapped me, really hard. And it hurt.

5th grade - Had my favorite teacher ever this year. I lost in the grade-wide spelling bee and started crying. When I got back to my room she had ordered balloons and had them at my desk. Looking back that was very nice. And also somewhat gay.

6th grade - This was the year I had my black fake-leather Michael Jackson jacket with zippers. The first day I wore it, my science teacher, probably having no idea who Michael Jackson was, called it a motorcycle jacket. Years later, he was bagging my groceries at a local grocery store. Talk about a poor pension plan.

7th grade - I remember JO, the crying kid from 3rd grade, smelled really bad one day, so the teacher made him leave the room and she went and sprayed like half a can of lysol around his now-empty desk. This was also the year of the Challenger explosion, I think, and I remember watching the news coverage at school.

8th grade - Played 8th grade basketball. We would practice with the 9th graders. And I remember they'd always pick on us. One practice, they took this one guy, TH, back in the locker room and stuck a pacifier in his mouth. Looking back, I wonder where they even got a pacifier. Also, this one kid, AP, and I would always buy and bring Now or Later candy to school and sell it for profit. Quite the little entrepreneur I was.

9th grade - For some reason, probably my haircut, and because I've almost always curled my lip when I smile, I earned the nickname "Elvis" in English class this year. Yeah. As you might imagine, it was great. Fortunately, once I got a haircut, the Elvis moniker, much like my tight-rolled Levis, faded.

10th grade - This one dude, JG, would always ask to borrow a pen from this other dude, JL. So at the end of class, JG would act like he was returning the pen, and he'd toss it towards JL, who sat near a window. But everytime, JG would throw it way over JL's head and it would go out the window and into the courtyard. We all got a big laugh out of that trick. The teacher in that class wouldn't let JL climb out the window. So one day I'm sitting in my next class and JL, who's not even in that class, comes in and asks that teacher if he could climb out her window to get his pen, and she let him.

11th grade - This was the year of the potpourri incident. Now that the statute of limitations has safely passed, I can finally talk about it. During break one day, someone dared me to spray potpourri into our teachers water glass. Well, I did. She came in to start class, immediately went for her glass. She drank, stood there for a few seconds, then left the room. When she came back in, she asked who had done it. No one would confess or tell, so she closed the door and closed all the windows and sprayed two cans of potpourri in the room and made us sit there. Oh, and I think this was the year where for like a week or two, this girl, LG, who was an office aide one period, would come and get me out of class and we'd make out in the hall. Those were the days.

12th grade - I honestly don't remember much about this year, oddly. Just having fun the whole year and not doing very much schoolwork at all. Sitting in annual staff one day, we were watching TV, and I started getting these blind spots. That was my first migraine headache, although I had no idea what it was at the time. Oh yeah, and I didn't get to go on my senior trip because of the "gym incident." More on that later. Maybe.

Tune in next week for Saved By The Bone: The College Years :-)

Couldn't help but think of this Seinfeld dialogue with the high school thing. From episode #72, "The Barber":
Elaine: "OK, our next bachelor is number, um, 124, on your program. He's uh, he's a high school graduate."
(Kramer whispers something to her.)
Kramer: "Oh, uh equivalency. A high school equivalency program graduate. He's um, self-employed. He's, I don't know, six foot three, a hundred ninety pounds. He likes, uh, fruit. And he just got a haircut."

"Goodbye, farewell, so long, vaya con Dios. Good luck, wish you well, take it slow. Easy come, girl, easy go..."