When I think back to my years at Lincoln Elementary School in Tulare, I am very thankful that the school districts ended "Capital Punishment" because our principal at the time was more than willing to not "spare the rod...". She had a nice little belt hanging on the wall in her office. When my cousins told me about the belt they did not leave out any details about the manner in which the principal would pop the "bad" kids that came to her office. It was bad enough that I would get the belt at home, let alone get it at school as well. GIVE A KID A BREAK...can't be nice all of the time, what do you expect from a kid. We had to do things that would get us in trouble. Yes contrary to popular opinion, I was not a perfect angel all of the time. There was that 10% troublemaker deep down inside of me that had to come out. Let's talk about a few of those RARE occasions when i was less than a perfect angel.
Little Girls - Trust or Not to Trust...That is the question...
It was always fun to do finger painting, learning to cut little figures out of craft paper and learning the art of teasing those icky girls. Ok, let's just skip to the icky girls part because that was where the real fun was, until I met Missy. Every girl that had pigtails was my first target each week. When the teacher was not watching, I would pull on their hair just to hear "ow, stop it or I am going to tell". Of course at that moment my eyebrows would form the horns of a little devil. During crafting time, I would find one of the girls that was not paying attention and put glue on the outside of the glue bottle. As we all know, at that age, little girls do not like having their hands covered in anything sticky or messy. I would even go so far to put glue on their chair so that they would sit in it. Yes I was a little brat as often as I could, provided that I didn't get caught in the act. I was the king of the classroom, the boys liked the jokes and the girls would always stay away. Nobody could stand in my way of taking over the class...until SHE came to my class. SHE is Missy and Missy was very cute and had a smile that would just make us boys just stare at her. After a few days of watching me play jokes on all of the other victims, I mean girls...she befriend me and took my defenses completely down. She would hang around me at recess and we would laugh and tell jokes to each other. Maybe girls are not icky at all; maybe they are cool and fun to be with. WRONG!!!!! Missy lured me into her web with kindness, fun and laughter. While we were sitting next to each other in class waiting for the teacher to give us our watercolor paints, things were going great. Missy being the kind girl that she was, she went to get the little cup of water that we would use to clean paint off of the brushes. She walked to the sink, turned it on and filled up the plastic cup. As she walked back to the desk, I noticed how full it was and told her that it was too full. She wasn't' paying attention at the moment so I figured she didn't hear me. As she gets to the desk, I tell her again and she looks me in the eye and poured the entire cup of water into my lap. Then says very loudly, "Eww, Mike peed on himself!". As I stand up to tell the teacher, all of the girls in class start laughing and pointing at me. Even the boys started to laugh and point at me. The tears started to fall as I was taken to the office so that the school could call my Aunt to bring me a change of clothes. LESSON LEARNED...what goes around, comes around, and at times can be very wet.
The Sun, the fun and the blisters...
The greatest playground equipment that I do not see around today is the Eagle's Nest, Monkey Bars and Jungle Gym. Most of the time when I drive by a school I do not see these iron beasts of fun. The Eagle's Nest was the best because it was a half dome object that was roughly 10 feet from the ground at the center and the entire structure was built using triangles. I tried to find a picture of one, but I cannot find one. I even drove back to Tulare to take a picture of the one at Lincoln, but it is no longer there. I noticed that most schools have completely replaced these monsters of the playground. I say monsters because only the brave would dare to climb to the top of the Eagle's Nest and sit there as though they were King of the Hill! Yes, I am that person; I would claim the top for myself and dare anyone to remove me from my small seat of power. If anyone tried, the battle was on and the last person hanging would be the winner. Yes I said the last person hanging, because in order for you to fight for the right to be at the top, you and your competition had to be at the top, and hang from the top as you used your legs to grab a person and pull them down. There would be a 6-8 foot drop for the loser, and a quick acrobatic move for the winner to claim the top. Now that I think about it, maybe they removed the Nest because it was teaching kids to fight and to dominate each other.
Now that I think about it, several games we played back in the 70s are long gone from the schools. The best game of the all and might make a few of you have nightmares.....DODGE BALL!!!! Oh man, that was my all time favorite game to play because I was fast and nearly hard to hit with the ball. Many of the times that we would play the game, I was one of the first 2 people picked to be on a team. The other team would hate the fact that I was quick and had no trouble using teammates as shields to get our team the victory. Although there were some moments of stinging pain from the ball slapping me in the face or back; I did not cry, even when the ball was hitting me in a more southern area. I would always remember the lucky few that had the ability to take me out of the game, because they would become my targets for sweet revenge. I always had a plan to get the people I wanted to nail with the ball. My friends knew the right time to get the ball to me to enact my revenge (evil laughter inserted here).
I was only able to play with these items and certain games while I attended Lincoln (1-3) because for the 4th grade, I was bused to a school across town. You read correctly, I was bused to the "rich" side of town and was nervous as could be and disappointed at their playground. But hey, that is another story for another day because that was the beginning of a new adventure attending Garden School.
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