what school did you attend when you were my age? who was your teacher? who was your best friend?

(afternoon) Kindergarten: Russell Park Elementary ~ Missoula, MT; I am pretty sure my teacher was Mrs. Adams...I just can't remember for sure. I had a friend named Jenny. She loved horses and had lots of toy horses in her bedroom, with some horse posters, too. Jenny was not in my class.

2nd Grade: Adams Elementary ~ Spokane, WA; my teacher was Mrs. Bailey. My best friend was Kimberly Wheatbrook. Kimberly is in the pretty green, polyester dress, 3rd from the right in the 2nd row. When my family moved back to Spokane when I was in 7th grade, I had classes with a lot of kids who had been in my 2nd grade class. Nobody remembered me (except Meredith Hughes), but I remembered them. I guess that's because I was the one who moved...

4th Grade: Bonneville Elementary ~ Orem, UT; my teacher was Mr. Aikau. My best friend that year was Kuiipo Sing; her nickname was Ipo. She and Hokulani (Hoku) Aikau lived across the street from each other and we were all in the same Ward. Yes, that means my teacher was in my Ward at Church. I stayed friends with Ipo while we lived there, but later became closer to other friends. Other friends I had in 4th grade were: Marja Workman (middle row in the red dress, near Mr. Aikau), Jennifer Morgan (next to Marja), Kimberly Thornton (back row, left side near Mr. Milne ~ the Principal), Wendy Baum (top row, in the middle, pink dress), and Lisa Grudzinski (next to Wendy).

what was your favorite thing to wear when you were my age?

In Kindergarten (1975/6), I loved my Garanimals. Each item of clothing had an animal character on the tag. You could tell if your clothes matched by choosing a shirt and pants/shorts with the same character. It was genius...sometimes I still think I could use Garanimals. The best part about my Garanimals clothing was that my Great Grandma Norah won them for me when she appeared on the TV Game Show "Hollywood Squares." I don't know what year it was, but I always wondered if she met Paul Lynde...I thought he was soooo funny!

I think that in 2nd grade (1977/8) my favorite shirt was my sweater set...the one I wore for my baptism. I thought that the pastel flecks were so pretty...and I loved the pink buttons.

Nothing strikes me as being my favorite from 4th grade. But the dress I'm wearing in my school picture was pretty cool. I had 2 of them, because they were hand-me-downs from two friends whose Moms liked to dress them alike. It was a long dress, as was the popular style in 1979/80.

share a memory from 4th grade...

In 4th grade (Bonneville Elementary ~ Orem, UT), I was in Mr. Aikau's class (i-cow) ~ it was a combined 3rd/4th grade classroom. He was a Hawaiian who loved his food...when he ate in the lunchroom he would eat 3 lunches. He opened the tops of the little milk cartons all the way and would drop the cake (frosting down) into the milk...after the milk soaked into the cake, he ate it with a spoon.

On the last day of school we had a Bubble-blowing contest. Mr. Aikau gave us each a pack of Hubba-Bubba bubble gum. Somehow, I managed to WIN the contest! My prize? A whole CARTON of Hubba-Bubba bubble gum. I'm sure my mom was soooo happy when I came home with it! ;)

Other random memories from 4th grade:

we made candles. First we poured a colored wax (our choice of color) into a soda can. After it set, Mr. Aikau cut the can away. Then we glued a family picture (or another picture of our choosing) onto the candle and dipped it into clear wax to coat and seal the picture. Sometimes there were air bubbles. I did a very mean thing...there was a boy in my class named Robert Bristol. His brother was older than us (in 6th grade) and he was not nice. I managed to massage an air bubble on Robert's picture right on top of his brother's face. I was quite pleased until I saw how upset Robert was! Then I felt terrible about it...sadly, I didn't feel bad enough to confess what I had done.

We learned a Polynesian drum-beat of some sort (with "music" sticks) and performed for our parents during a "Back to School" night. We sat cross-legged on the floor and pounded the floor with our sticks. I remember daydreaming that there were disco lights and those funky starlights behind us, and that some TV news camera was filming us with weird zoomed in camera angles. It was silly, but still vivid in my memory.

I played football at recess. When I told Malcolm tonight he said, "Uh, football, Mommy? Football?! Um, don't you mean SOCCER? That's a better sport for girls to play!" I think if I were in his class he would be afraid of the 2nd grade "me." ;)

Our school had pencil machines outside of the office. For a quarter you could buy a special "Bonneville Broncos" pencil or some other silly type of things. One day as I was walking past the machine I noticed that there was a quarter jammed in the slot. I went to the office and lied and told them it was my quarter...the office lady looked at me very surprised and said, "Missy, I'm pretty sure that's not your quarter. Someone else already reported it." I was so sure they were going to call my mom and tell her what I had done. I was very embarassed about lying, and probably even more embarassed that I had been caught. It took a long time for me to walk past the office again.