Old School

It can be a bit unnerving when your hear there's been a picture of you posted on the Internet -- not that I have any skeletons in my closet. (Please don't look!) When I saw the photo today, I was relieved and amused that it was a picture taken long ago, the day I finished 4th grade.

The old black-and-white image brings back a lot of memories. We're standing there -- my twin Raylene (far left front) and me (second from far right front) in our matching tube tops and shorts -- as the last students to attend Oak Hill elementary school. The next year the two-room school house stood empty and we were all shipped into town to the BIG school in Luck.

I often wonder if Carter will remember his grade-school days as fondly as I do. It didn't matter that we were squeezing 3 grades each into the "Little Room" (grades 1-3) and the "Big Room" (grades 4-6). It didn't matter that our basement doubled as a gym and a lunchroom (and tornado shelter). It didn't matter that we had limited playground equipment (but we had 4-square!).

What I remember in vivid detail are the sledding hill, the large dramatic productions for Christmas (and Mother's Day, too), the Halloween parties complete with cake walks, the kickball games, Red Rover and three-legged races up on the grassy ball diamond, the forts in the plum trees, warm corn bread with syrup for lunch. Oh, and the coolest teachers of course -- there was learning involved after all!

Ahhh, memory lane...

I'm so grateful an old friend -- who I haven't seen or talked to in 20+ years -- posted this "snapshot in time." It certainly keeps the memories alive.

And makes me wonder, based on my cute outfit, if I was onto something long before Shania Twain bared her midriff. I did play her double once -- and I pray no pictures of that will ever surface on the Web! (Again, please don't look!)