All of this talk of getting another year older made me remember a question Charles once asked me:
What was your favorite year growing up?
This was about two years ago, but I think my answer is the same: third grade. It was a pretty great year. Here are a couple highlights:
- My friend Colleen and I were in the play Scrooge and got to skip school a lot to do performances for other schools.
- Colleen and I also tied a hose to a tree and tried to swing off my roof by it. She went first and smacked right into the tree. I still laugh remembering this incident.
- The fourth graders always organized amazing games of tag on the Upper Big Toy*, making recess the most fun ever.
- I think I was the smartest kid in my class.
- I learned to roller skate down this big hill in front of my house without falling down repeatedly. I was a really klutzy kid.
- We had a dog named Ziggy who was adorable. We ended up getting rid of him (her? I have no idea) because it would always escape and go up to the local elementary school and run around causing a ruckus.
Of course, some bad things happened too:
- One day a wasp stung the top of my head and the nurse put all this smelly stuff on it to make it stop hurting, but then no one would come near me all day. It was really embarrassing.
- I started losing teeth (so late), a process I hated so much — just thinking about it now makes me cringe.
* Big Toys are those big wooden playground structures (like this). Our school had two: Upper and Lower, based on their relative location on a hill. The Upper Big Toy had a cool net thing you could play on, that’s actually where the wasp incident happened. The Lower Big Toy had big bars that you could do gymnastics tricks on and some tall(ish) pedestals we would stand on and chicken fight on when the teachers weren’t looking.
What was your favorite year growing up?
