I remember one particular day when I was in third grade. I was ill and had stayed home. We lived practically right next to my school. At one point during the day, my teacher, Mrs. Hall, stopped by my house to check up on me. She had been my second grade teacher as well, and I was very fond of her. She had always treated me especially well - except for the one time she put me in “time out” for accompanying a boy’s musical efforts with my makeshift drum set, which consisted of my fingers on a desk. Anyway, back to the story…
Mrs. Hall showed up at my house and informed my mother that there was a school spelling bee that day, and she really wanted me to participate. My mom asked me if I’d like to. I said no. After all, I was sick!
At that time in my life, I had a serious fascination with paper dolls. Do you guys remember those things? They were little cardboard people that you could dress up with special paper and/or vinyl clothing. Oh, the memories! If they still make those things, I’d like to have some!
After I had informed my mom that I was not willing to go to school for the spelling bee, she pulled out the big guns. She bribed me! “I’ll get you some new paper dolls if you do it,” she said. Without a moment’s hesitation, I said yes. I then went to school and won the spelling bee. Not bad for a third grader who was competing against sixth graders!
My mom kept her promise, and I got lots of new paper dolls. And since I had won my school’s spelling bee, I was then expected to compete in a regional spelling bee. That required even more paper dolls! I didn’t win the regional competition, but I fared pretty well. And the only thing that mattered to me were all the new paper dolls that were waiting for me when I got home that evening!
June 17th, 2006 at 3:31 pm
you beat 6th graders at a spelling contest? thats pretty impressive. that reminds me of a game where a guy takes his tongue and um… uh… welll. he spells out words in a sense and the um… other ‘particpant’ is supposed to try and guess what im spelling. but she never could guess what i was spelling because i would make up words… long words. and i would have to redo them again and again. it was a fun game. you should try it sometime.
June 17th, 2006 at 4:44 pm
Brico ~ First you suggested the “5 Minutes in a Closet” game. Now this. Looks like I’m in store for some real excitement next weekend.
June 18th, 2006 at 1:50 pm
Yeah Brico, that’s the way I write my letter to Santa every year and I sleep with a thesaurus next to my bed. You can’t believe the loot those letters bring! Good job Tish. I am on your side soulmate but the rules are clear in the man handbook. It’s almost written in stone. Sorry.
tg
June 20th, 2006 at 2:12 am
My sister had paper dolls. I used to play with them with her. She’d put the clothes on and I’d……….well, you know the rest.
Gim me a break. I was a kid and we didn’t even have TV.