I was born on the very first day of my life in a small Kansas town.
My brother, Kevin was only 14 months old. My mom often talked about how difficult…and how fun it was to have two babies so close together. We grew up much like twins, doing new things at the same time. I don’t think the “birth order thing” really applies to us so much, since we were so close in age and he a boy and me a girl.
My parents would have loved to have more kids…but when I was three my mom developed a tumor in her uterus. She had surgery, then months of treatments. I don’t remember any of that time. Grandmas and aunts and neighbors took turns helping to take care of us while Mom was weak and sick. She told me once that during that time, she wished so badly that she had the strength even to just fold a load of laundry. I try to remember that wisdom when I feel whiny about all the laundry I have to fold.
Mom made a full recovery and the cancer never came back. Mom and Dad would celebrate her birthdays heartily, having learned the hard way that life is precious.
When I started school, I had a very hard time…probably because of some insecurities I developed when my mom was sick and I was passed around a lot. My mom always felt bad about that. I cried a lot at school and had tummy aches. I finally “came out of my shell” a little in the seventh grade. (I never knew I was in a shell before that…but that’s what my volleyball coach told my mom. What am I, a turtle?)
Here are some exciting memories you’d probably love to hear about my school years:
- In first grade we put a note and our school address inside a balloon and sent them off from the playground. Months later the school received a letter from some guy in California. My balloon had made it all the way from KS to CA and lived to tell about it. I was a six year old celebrity. (I mean, they put an article in the Pratt Tribune and everything.)
- Ooh, another first grade balloon memory… For our class Christmas party, one of the moms had us play a game where you had to sit on a balloon and pop it. I gave it all I had, but I could NOT pop my balloon (I was so stinkin’ scrawny). Kristina’s mom finally came and pushed down on me real hard to get my balloon to pop. It still didn’t pop. All the moms laughed and I thought they were laughing at me. (sniff)
- In the fifth grade, we did a musical called, K.I.D.S. Radio. My friend had to do a solo called, “Figaro”…about a dog and she had to sing, “Bow Wow, Bow Wow” several times. I was SO glad I didn’t have to sing the Figaro song.
- I hated P.E. Always.
- I cussed twice in the fifth grade. I called Wesley a “Jack—“. I said it to impress Joey. I’m pretty sure he was impressed. That summer, I cried and confessed to my mother my potty mouth. I never cussed again.
- I started to play sports in the seventh grade. I played volleyball and basketball and ran track. I was never very good, but I tried hard. (Kevin got all the athletic genes.) When we lifted weights in high school, I was always the one who “benched” the least amount of weight. It was that scrawny thing coming back to haunt me.
- My junior year, I tore a ligament in my knee while playing volleyball, which pretty much killed my sporting career, even though I didn’t really have a sporting career to begin with. For a few months, I had to wear a thing on my left leg that was half cast – half brace. The only kind of pants I could wear were sweat pants. I bought a pair of sweats in every color and even wore them when I sang in choir concerts. Lovely. My left leg is still slightly smaller than my right leg (muscle wise). Lovely.
- I played the flute.
- I had 17 kids in my graduation class. Impressive number isn’t it?
Well, we’ll stop there for now. Did you hate P.E. or love it? Did you play an instrument? Could YOU get a balloon to pop with your bottom in the first grade? (sniff)
Glad to hear that you made it to CA safely!
I always hated P.E. We couldn’t afford music lessons, so I taught myself to play piano. Not sure if I could get a balloon to pop, but I wasn’t scrawny, so I probably could! I didn’t like being separated from my mom when I was in the 2nd grade. I came up with every excuse I could to get the nurse to call my mom to come and get me.
FYI – I have boy/girl twins. When I was pregnant with them I was wondering how the birth order thing was going to pan out. They both have some first born attributes, but my daughter – who was born about 30 seconds before her twin brother – is definitely in charge! She talks almost non-stop and he just listens!
I hated PE, too, and I hated parties where you had to sit on the balloon to pop it. I never could. :) My graduating class had five students! (My parents and their friends started a small private school before homeschooling was a well-known option.)
I was OK with PE in grade school for sure – one of my classmates (it was 16 in grade school but I graduated with seventy-some, I think) was the son of the PE teacher.
I took piano lessons for a while and played a year or so of the alto sax. I liked to sing more.
Um, Laura, you never cussed again until the incident on the bus in college!! :>)
Sports weren’t really my thing, either. In high school, I was a three-sport-letter-winner as a student manager. Seriously! (In addition to lettering in speech, drama, and music. Love those small schools!)
Do you think your hard time would have been made better or worse had you been homeschooled? I ask because I had some similar hard times and I want so badly to avoid that for my little one (and any subsequent little ones) but I also want to make sure they’re prepared for the world, which I think can happen in MANY other ways than just sending them on the bus – I think it’s one of those homeschool misconceptions that you handle just fine when you get there but worry about beforehand. Or something.
I had no idea my school was so much bigger than yours. I graduated with a whopping 21!
Balloons… I was always “sick” at those parties and spent a good majority of them in the nurse’s office. ;-) Hated popping balloons.
And I thought my school was small with a graduating class of 80! I hated PE.
I was also the scrawny one in elementary school. I never had to try to sit on a balloon to pop it, but when my parents bought a fancy new riding lawn mower, you had to have enough pressure on the seat or it would stop running. Everytime I tried to mow, every little bump would bounce me off enough that the mower would quit! Needless to say, I was relegated to dish duty instead of mowing the yard. (And I am only slightly still bitter to this day (it has only been 20 years or so!))
Hi Laura!
First, I have a sister named Laura, so every time I see your name I am reminded of her.
P.E. — hated it! Still do, always will. I have asthma, so I was often in the school nurse’s office half way through gym.
I played clarinet in middle school and high school.
I don’t know about the balloon, but my guess is that I wouldn’t be able to pop it either. I was a very scrawny girl and I remember being turned down from giving blood during my high school’s blood drive. You have to be 110 pounds and I was 109 in 12th grade! Wish I had that problem today.
Have a great Christmas!
Hated P.E. very very much. Especially when it was track & field rotation. I could get by with net sports like racquetball or volleyball, and sometimes even tennis, but the running killed me. The only thing I was decent at was sprinting, but you can’t spend an entire 50-minute class just sprinting.
I played clarinet – but my parents swore my (only?) talent was in the art field. They forced me to take a year of an art rotation, and if I still wanted to do band after that, I could. I did, desperately. I started a year behind everyone, but by the next year, I was always first chair. Remind me not to decide for *my* kids what they are and aren’t good at!
We play the balloon popping games at our birthdays, too. :) I usually didn’t have much trouble popping, but then, I only remember back to about 3rd grade. I might have had trouble before then that I don’t remember. My kids play it at their birthday parties, now. One of my favorites!
My graduating class had about 650 students. I envy the short length of your diploma ceremony. I was entirely too sick of clapping for my classmates by the time they got to my last name, which started with a W.
Love your balloon flying story. I did something similar as a child, a couple times… but I never got any feedback. :(
I HATED PE!!! I am the most un-athletic person I know. Probably because I was so little and scrawny. All 3 of my girls are the smallest in their classes – I think they like the fact that I can empathise!
I never played the balloon popping game, and that’s probably a good thing, because a popping balloon makes me jump a mile out of my skin (I’m a little skittish)!
I began playing the violin in 3rd grade, majored in music in college and worked as a professional violinist until becoming a mom 9 years ago. I also sing.
loved p.e. until high school and then I was self-conscious about the sweaty smell afterwards. Play piano. I remember playing that game with the balloons and it being hard to pop, like smooshing way down and then rebounding.
I could never pop the balloon, either, and one time one of my friend’s parents tried to push down on my shoulders to help me pop it… but it just slid out from under me.
I think I could pop one now (maybe… I’m still so stinkin’ scrawny, lol), but I don’t like popping balloons because I always jump at the noise — scares me every time!
Oh, and I have never been able to give blood — still — as I think you have to be over 100 pounds. I did break 100 lbs (okay, I broke 120!) when I was pregnant with my son, though, and had lots of blood drawn. Although none was actually donated because it was all for pregnancy-related tests, lol. I think I might have a heart attack if I ever reach over 100 pounds and I’m not pregnant, though… I’ve always been very “tiny” and that’s one of the first things people tell me when they meet me. Nice, huh?
Oh, and one last thing (I promise) I was the only one in my graduating class (and, no, I wasn’t homeschooled). Phew!
Thanks for sharing all these fun tidbits with us, Laura! :o)
I always hated PE. I love music and played the flute and piano. I’m also from Kansas and had 22 in my graduating class (and we were the BIG class)! I’m not sure about the baloon thing but I’m pretty sure I could of popped it. I was a bit chunky back then too. :)
Oh my I hated PE too! For me it was so terribly embarrassing. lol Running with the boys in junior high….so embarrassing.
Never did actually learn to play an instrument. I am sure I could have popped a balloon no problem, except for my pride. (-:
Glad you made it safely!!! I’ve never had any bag of chips explode from pressure in the car! That’s WILD!!!
My memories of sports in my young years is: “Flotte’s up, move in”, and “Easy Out!!” (Flotte is my maiden name) I liked playing, I just STUNK at EVERYTHING!!! I did find one sport in junior high that I excelled at especially in High School: SWIMMING!!! LOVE it still!!
I did NOT like PE, I had to share a gym uniform with my sister, who had class first, so I always got a nice sweaty, crumpled, funky smelling suit. :( Nice, huh? We could only afford 1 suit and both our names started with “S” so we could share (the gym teacher put our first initial and our last name in marker on the shirt and shorts). WHY didn’t they name me something else so I could have had my own clean suit! LOL (Yeah, I’m sure they thought of that when they were naming us!) Good thing the Duggars homeschool! All those girls trying to share 1 suit! LOL
Enjoy the rest of your warm weather trip!!! & have a SAFE trip home. :)
That thing you had with your Mom is here again in this post….would love to know what she did in raising you that made you sensitive enough to confess saying a bad word!…….I’ve seen kids who would lie ’til the cows come home EVEN IF their Mothers seen them do it!
I hated the stuff that they made us do in P.E….run a mile in the hot sun! And when I was in elem. school, I couldn’t skip right; I could only do it with one leg- I couldn’t switch,lol. I think I still have coordination problems!
I hated every formal PE thing that we did, although I loved running around and playing in the yard with my brother, which was most of my PE (since I was homeschooled).
My mother talks about her early education similar to the way you do. She is convinced that she really would have been better off starting several years later and catching up (which is what she ultimately had to do). She said that she didn’t even understand the concept of tests and such while in first grade and had a very mean 2nd grade teacher. The first time she heard about homeschooling (I was under 2), she said, “You mean my daughter doesn’t have to go through what I went through?” and quickly decided that homeschooling was for us. I am SO thankful that I was not “prepared for the world” by being sent to school–espcially at the tender age of six. I never felt unprepared for life because I didn’t go to public school and at 19 moved to Russia with a mission team to live for 2 years. I BELIEVE IN HOMESCHOOLING! :)
Thank you for sharing about your life. It is very sweet to read about your parents’ appreciation for life after your mom’s serious scare. We really need to stop and be thankful for the precious time we have with our loved ones.
I hated PE and I actually flunked it one year. When I was 30 I met my PE teacher in the store and told her she had made high school a living hell for me and I bet that made her day. I played the piano. I have always had an ample bottom and could always bust a balloon. Have a wonderful Christmas. Glad your trip went well.
Roberta Anne
I absolutely hated PE as well. I played the flute, but my parents also had me in piano and voice lessons. I have a bad balloon-popping memory as well. We were supposed to pop it after one minute. Not only could I not pop the balloon, I had no idea how long one minute was! My graduating class was 40, but we were by far the biggest class to ever go through our school.