Mommy's Piggy Tales: Week 4: Going to a New Place

Moving was so much fun! When we left the house in Brunswick, all of the rooms were empty & I could run from room to room, with even the smallest whisper seeming to echo around the walls. The new house in Warner Robins did the same thing, but the rooms were quickly filled with boxes. The new house was different, too, which made it fun. My new room had shelves in the closet, as did my brother's, and we both had fancy light-switch plates (mine had angels.) His room was smaller than mine, and shaped funny with one wall having a nook that just held his bed. This was also where his window was, and it looked over a small patio on the side of the house. The house had two brick-lattice patios, one on the side and one connecting the driveway to the front door, and both could be accessed from the huge living room. It was taller than it was wide, owing to its "cathedral" ceiling; there was no overhead light fixture, but there were windows following the roofline opposite of the fireplace. (Yea! Fireplace! Now Santa didn't have to use his key!) The kitchen was tiny (a galley kitchen), the den generous. The bathrooms were two rooms each, a sink part AND a tub/toilet part. The best part was the screened-in porch to play on, the concrete patio with a tree growing in the middle of it, a back yard that went forever & the wild woods in the back. Kid heaven!

The kids next door came over to check us out. The two older boys couldn't care less about a seven-year-old girl & her little brother, but Sal, wearing no shirt, climbed down out of a tree to talk. Sal would be in Second Grade, too, and offered to teach me how to climb trees & how to find the paths through the woods. Then Sal had to go in & wash up. Well, I should say, "Sally," because that's the name her mother called out the door. Fooled again! Yet, I didn't feel too bad. Sally was a self-professed tom-boy, running after her brothers and admiring the TV wagon-master "Dirty Sally." Getting her into a dress, like her little sisters, was a feat. I think I saw her in a dress just once. And she did know all the fun places out in the woods, even though I was too chicken to climb up into any of the tree-houses.

My birthday was very, very low key, on account of moving in July. But my mom did make me an early present; a new bed spread and curtains in the prettiest pink/blue/green & yellow calico patchwork print. I loved it!

I was the new kid at Richard B. Russell Elementary; everyone else seemed to know each other from first grade. I didn't know any other kids in my "pod." To say I felt shy & out of place would have been an understatement. I felt especially awkward with the teacher, Mrs. "G." She was old and acted like it. Everyone said her sister had taught them in the first grade and they loved the sister. But we weren't too sure about our current teacher. (I wasn't alone in my sentiments.) Once, she asked us to tell about our parents. I told about all the pennies my dad had saved up in old liquor bottles. They were old pennies -- lots of wheats-- and they were old decorative decanters. I thought they were just wonderful, but Mrs. G started in on me about the evils of drinking and alcoholism. I'd never felt so small in all my life. I just cried, which only made the kids laugh at me. I think my friend George tried to cheer me up. He understood how I felt about coins. One day he brought some different coins to school & asked which of us wanted a English square penny. Me! Me! It's mine, a square penny from British Borneo. (I often wondered how the kids in England could get gum out of a gum machine if their pennies were square.) George moved away over Christmas with hardly a good-bye. Warner Robins was an Air Force town; little did I know that many people would come in & out of my life that way.

If George had stayed, I guess he & I would have "gone together." Suddenly everyone (except me) was "going together." This I couldn't figure out. Yes, I know it meant sort of a boyfriend/girlfriend thing, but even I knew we were only seven & eight, and we can't GO anywhere. I tried having a crush on Tom, since he was kinda cute, lived up the street from me & was in my Sunday School class, but he didn't welcome my attention. I guess chasing him on the playground is not the way to a man's heart.

Second grade was very busy for me. There was class, and spending time with Sally & her family. But there were also "activities." I was attending Sunday School for the first time, or as it was called at Sacred Heart Church, CCD. Sister Pius was our teacher and we were preparing for our First Communion in the Spring. We had a ton of prayers & stuff to learn about God & Jesus & Eucharist. If we didn't say our prayers just right, she'd yell at us. And then she tell us that we didn't want to make her mad-- that we hadn't seen her mad yet. Boy, if that wasn't her "mad," we didn't want to see the real thing. She was a real, old-school nun, the likes of which would never be seen again.

After school there was also dance lessons-- tap, ballet and tumbling at Mrs. Bonnie Robertson's Studio. For the time, the studio was in the bonus room of her basement. I really liked dance class; I learned the moves very quickly and enjoyed the feeling of dancing. I couldn't do the splits very well, but I could get a good, wide angle on my ballet positions, especially number two. My mom learned about the classes from one of the other Scouting moms. That was another of my favorite things to do, Brownie Scouts! We learned about nature & singing & games, and took field trips. My mom was one of the leaders of our troop, which was awkward sometimes, since she'd call on me to help out, but didn't favor me with help from herself. (????) Then there was the incident of singing at dues time on at the first troop meeting-- it was in the Brownie Handbook, unfortunately I'm such a goob. Did not sing the "Plink-plink" song again. But otherwise it was tons of fun.

In school, I wasn't very popular, but I did get something special. F.O.C.U.S. - Fostering Outstanding Creativity & Understanding in Students. It was an "enrichment class." There were only two second graders chosen for FOCUS, me and Melissa R. The rest of the students were 4th grade and up, but they were experimenting with 2nd & 3rd grades, as a mixed group. We mainly talked about stuff and did weekly worksheets with things like logic puzzles, vocabulary, and other "mind games." My dad got more of a kick out of my weekly sheets than I did!

The months moved by in kind of a blur. Mrs. G would miss a lot of days, and then after mid-term, she just wasn't there. Her health I guess. The teacher who'd been our most regular substitute, Mrs. Vizzini, was now our regular teacher. I liked Mrs. Vizzini. She'd recognized that I was a shy kid; she'd often let me have the privilege of sitting next to her at lunch, and was supportive of me in my classwork.

Soon it was spring and I became important! First Communion time had arrived. I had a new white dress with a poofy skirt and little multi-colored flecks shaped like little candies. So pretty. I had a white hair bow. I begged & begged for a veil like everyone else, but all we could afford was a bow. My grandmothers who came down to visit for the occasion were as disappointed as I was; if they'd known, they would have bought me one. Pride, as they say... but they made it up to me. I got little gifts of money (for bonds) and little cross necklaces. Babchu gave me a sterling & crystal rosary that was so beautiful! My mom almost "put it up" for me, but a good Catholic girl needs her rosary. My mom fried the last of the shrimp we'd frozen back in Brunswick for the dinner, and my dad got us Krispy Kreme donuts for breakfast. The biggest surprise was that Mrs. Vizzini dropped off a present for me at my house. I didn't know that teachers cared about kids outside of school. I was very, very touched that she remembered me with a little cross necklace.

Less than a month later was my dance recital. I felt like a princess! Our costumes had all sorts of sequins (sequins!!!!) on it, with little spaghetti straps. I wore it with a matching tutu for the ballet piece, and with a feathered headband for the tap piece. For tumbling, we just wore our leotards & tights. It was wonderful and I so looked forward to dancing again next year.

School finished, and we all got promoted. (Even some of the boys who made fun of me.) The year was full of experiments: having second graders in FOCUS, not including First Reconciliation with First Communion instruction, and now I was bridging up from Brownies to Junior Girl Scouts-- they had lowered the age. Well! This was exciting news indeed. Now I could earn badges, and I could even start this summer!!!!!! Oh, joy, oh joy!

For the summer, my brother & I were enrolled in swimming lessons at Dry Lake Pool. My brother was in a Pee-wee sort of class; mine was Advanced Beginners. I could not pass Advanced Beginners; I did not do the "heels-in-the-back-pockets" kick of the Elementary Backstroke just right. But a photographer came out and took lots of picture of my little brother having to be coaxed into the water. The cute little coward was all over the newspaper. Bleh.

Still, it was a nice summer, with days spent playing in the backyard or the woods, or at one of the area playgrounds, if my mom wasn't in the mood to take us to the pool. Sally got a new baby sister, and her brothers got a sleeping loft, so their room could also be the playroom. I would help Sally with her chores, including their vegetable garden. I did learn how to climb a little tree, if I could hold on to the fence underneath it. Right around my birthday, my parents found the time & the money to take my brother and I to Six Flags Over Georgia. Fun! Fun! Fun! I had high hopes.

(This should have been posted back on July 1. The past two weeks have been filled with visits from fiends & relatives and preparing to rearrange the kids' sleeping arrangements. Things that bring out the best in my procrastination. This post will soon have pictures added, of at least my school photo, dance costume and bead spread. Loved those! Thanks for all your kindness & patience.)