Sophmore HS year...

My Sophomore year was a "Ying Yang" year.  I finished my Fish time...freshman year by failing Algebra 1 with a 0.1 average. I could not for the life of me get math. At that point in my teen life I was at the lowest ebb of my high school scholastic life.  So, I signed up for regular freshman Math 1, in my Sophomore year.  I made up my mind that I would not amount to much and I better at least try the “easier” math class so I can at least graduate from public high school.  Depressing at it seemed the classroom was wall to wall freshman and I was the only 10th grader.  So I felt really out of place; this coupled with the Yang part of my high school life is that I really must have hit a spark in the one class I really didn’t care about...lol...R.O.T.C.   The old sarge really took a liking to me and promoted me as a Sophomore to a Staff position...So now when I walked into math class with a bunch of freshman I was decked out in my Rot C uniform with rank of a senior classman, I was caught with the notion that I was in a spotlight. I couldn’t do as I did in Algebra the year before, in that math class, I just couldn’t.

But as usual my Ying sparked up as a twofer...that means two good things. First I sat down at my desk with the fish, and stared up at the blackboard, listened to the instructions on how to do our first set of problems and like magic, it made sense?.. Oh my god!! What the hell, I actually looked at the problems and it made sense.  (later I think, actually very much later, I surmissed I must have been lead poisoned by mom who insisted on cooking pinto beans in a Mexican clay pot called a comal.  When the pot broke and mom switched to a shiny new stainless steel pot at the end of my freshman year. Alas back to my revelation that I was getting math and even more so I was making A’s.  

Ying 2… It was in the same math class that I noticed, two good looking girls.  One, sat behind me, and the other on my right side on the next row. I really didn’t know anybody so eventually they struck up a conversation with me. One of the girls older brother was one of my cadets that I was in charge of and we had that in common, but the other girl, was on my bus route that I rode to school in the morning.  She didn’t always take the bus, but some days she did.  I really didn’t talk to Ruth, but only at school, and only at math class.  In retrospect, I wish I did. I really was infatuated with her, she was nice but also kind of serious sort of way.   I was pretty shy around girls, as a matter of fact, I just didn’t really talk to girls. But these two made it easy to at least have a conversation, even if it was only in math class.

Yang...Oh yeah Yang...I kinda liked Ruth, I thought that she was a nice kind of girl.  So I did what most adolescent just feeling their Cheerioats do...buy a football mum for Homecoming...Football Homecoming that is.  (Side note:  football homecoming is the time that any girl whose has a sweet heart receives a huge mum, with ribbons, novelty medals of little footballs, mascots etc.)  Generally they have the girls name on it and other sweet things from their admirers. Girls wore them like badges, in girl world; the more mums the better.  Well I told my mom that I wanted to buy a mum for a girl and she gave the money to order it.... I ordered it at a crowded, fold-up table and I placed a relatively simple mum but I froze at what I should have written on the ribbon. Instead of saying” happy homecoming”, or for “Ruth”, or any sappy saying...I said put my name on it.....let me spell it..F..e...l...i...x.....F....and the rest of the letters of my long last name....    Needless to say she got the mum so she could wear to the game...I really didn't see her at the game that night. But the next day, I get..."you got me a mum?..why did you put your name on it?......ok....I did not know what to say....  I never really talked to Ruth after that...but I used to ride my bike past her house when I went to visit my best friend, hoping she would be outside, but that never happened.  In retrospect I moved on rather quickly, since the life of a Sophomore going on to be a Junior in High School is such a big deal... well I thought so at least....

Yang 2....46 years later, I'm looking at Facebook at one of the many sites that I am part of a "group"...The high school group, that I belong to has it mix of followers who peaked and trying  to relive their glory days, those who peaked later and like to let folks know that that they might not have shined in high school, but now they are successful. Along with those who generally are curious to revisit their past and see how everyone has changed....I hope I fit the last category but still it had some info on some long lost friends...I noticed that I have lost several friends including my best friend, whose house I used to go to when I biked by Ruth's house. When "K" passed away I was upset since we were about the same age and a vicious form of cancer took his life.   But, when I saw Ruth's obituary announcement. I at first had not heard or even thought of her for almost a half century, and the memories started coming back. I looked up her FB page, and saw a fine looking more mature, person but still the same girl...she had a son, who pictures of her and him literally were almost the only pictures posted in the last 3 years of her FB page.   I later found out that her son passed away, the same, 3 years earlier...she aged visibly those last 3 years, I can only imagine she passed on with a broken heart.

Miller Wins the Race

I spent 13 years at my former district. I was enrolled in graduate school and felt I needed a change along with my new degree.  I planned a timeline that would make me a suitable candidate for becoming an administrator by gaining different experience as a elementary/primary teacher.  Since my current district did not pay in Social Security just for teacher retirement, I transferred to a district that did both, SSI and Teacher retirement.  Remember teachers did not really make enough to put money aside for a 401k or even a decent nest-egg so if I could qualify for two “checks per month”, when I retired, I chose the latter.  Too many teacher’s I talked to who stayed at the other district, deeply regretted  not “jumping ship” when I did.  Even with administrators pay and no SSI..it would have been a tight squeeze..

This aside I was in my 2^nd year at my new school: Miller elementary; it was named after a black WWII hero who came up from the kitchen galleys of a battleship (name eludes me) and manned an AA gun (antiaircraft) and shot down some attacking Japanese planes. 

Forward to the present, I have a 4^th grader whose last name was Miller and wouldn’t you know it he is a grand nephew of the WWII hero too.  Very smart, but had to be the smallest kid in his class. That’s not to say he was scrawny either, on the contrary he wiry tough; just one thing, that youngster had different priorities and his school and his subjects weren’t one of them. 

Between his mom and I we put a modicum of pressure for him to make “just” passing grades and he even did just pass the state assessment test that year, where he hadn’t before.  Little Miller, really wanted to be good at athletics, but his size just kept him a bit overwhelmed by his much larger and faster peers.  This went on all year, till the announcement of field day on a date selected close to the end of school.  That year the kids had to sign up for the different events and the all the events were getting lots of signatures except for the MILE run….  I asked why no one signed on and it was made very plain to me that the 5^th graders dominated that event and no 4^th grader even had a chance to compete or win.

I looked at the list and realized that little Mr. Miller had not signed up for any of the events.  So I asked him to sign up for the Mile run.  He looked and me and said “nahuh…”.  Well, I knew he was pretty fast, again not as fast as the other kids, but a mile race was different I explained to him.. “It’s not how fast you are but how determined you are to win the race.”  He still said “nahuh…”  “Ok you know we always do races at recess right? Well why don’t we practice and come up with some strategy to beat the 5^th graders?” I said, “and if you still don’t want to, you don’t have to enter the race.

Every recess for the next two weeks the kids and along with Miller ran around the playing field, practicing all the events from short races, to relays and the dreaded mile. 

When we set up to practice for that Mile race, I noticed that Miller would run like the wind and was leading the pack the whole time but that last quarter he would get tired and the other kids would pass him up.  

“You were winning then you got tired right?”,  a small, very sweaty boy looked up to me and said “yeah but I got beat” and in the same breath “ I don’t want to race.” “Look “ I told him “Lets do this.” I recanted his race to him, telling him he was running and winning at the start but then he ran out of energy.  Why not save it till the end?” He looked at me like I was from outer space.  “This is what you do just follow the leader of the race when we practice, but on the day of the real race you watch when I give you the signal and you can put on the afterburners and make a race out of it.  Just remember stay behind the leader till I tell you..”    

The day of the race our kids were making a fine showing.  We were winning or placing on almost every event. So it came down to the final event, the MILE. 

Coach called for all the contestants to line up at the marker run two laps around the field (approximately 1 mile).  I went over the strategy with Miller. “.  Just remember stay behind the leader till I tell you..”    Miller lined up and  ran just hard enough to stay behind the leader.  The leader was the best runner in the 5^th grade and was easily setting a pretty fast pace, the kids started slowing down about ½ way it came down to a steady pace (greatly slower) than from the beginning of the race.  I was waiting to about the ¼ mile left and I had to tell my self , wait, wait, wait…NOW! I started waving my arms and hands over my head. Sure enough the leader and Miller saw me both started speeding up but like a lot of races, if you’re the leader, you can sense if someone is just behind you, and being kids you put extra exertion to maintain that lead.  But Miller had no such pressure, he just held back till he got the signal and then like a thing of beauty he poured it on.  Everyone on the track saw it happening, Miller pulled and passed the front runner as if were standing still, you could tell he tried to keep up, but to no avail, he had no more energy, Miller won by at least 15 feet from 2^nd place.

 4^th grade went crazy! It was as if little Miller had won the Olympics. Kids were chanting “ Miller Miller Miller” teachers were crying, the Coach had a grin from ear to ear. 

That ribbon was better than an Olympic medal on that day..

A Minion Reasons to Love 2nd Grade...

Once upon a time
                 there was a classroom
Where we used to raise a marker or two
                  Remember how we laughed away the hours
 And think of all the great teaching we would do
                 Those were the days my friend 
We thought they'd never end
                 We'd Read and do Math forever and a day

We'd live the life we choose

                We'd learn and never lose

 For we were young and sure to have our way

A e i o u
A e i o u
A e i o u and sometimes y

Then the busy years went rushing by us
                               We lost our second grade on the way
If by chance I'd see you  at Taco Cabana
                                We'd smile at one another and we'd say
Those were the days my friend
                                 We thought they'd never end
We'd Read and do Math forever and a day
                               We'd live the life we choose
We'd learn and never lose
                               Those were…

apology to Mary Hopkins,  song :Those Were the Days