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We have an assignment to write about our memories of elementary school for our Cochran Family Blog so I dug up this post which it turns out I wrote, but never published.  I had my mother send some elementary school pictures to go with them.  For some reason, I thought that would be a nice way to add to the blog, I must have forgotten how dorky I looked.  I actually considered not posting them, but then who am I trying to impress anyway?  So here they are in all their glory!

At some point I made friends with a girl named Angie Kimmet who rode my bus. I can’t  remember when we became friends. I think she had only one younger sibling (a brother?)and her parents smoked and may have yelled a lot. Angie and I played Barbies most of the time. We both had a crush on a new boy in school one year (probably 3rd or 4th grade) and we would pretend that Ken was Chris (the new boy). Chris was probably my first crush ever. He had spiked hair and wore Miami Dolphins sweat pants just about everyday. I remember that his sweat pants would always be pulled up a little on one side so that the elastic caught just above his calf muscle. I don’t know why that was cool, but he was the epitome of cool and that’s what he wore.

Angie really liked this movie about a cartoonish looking duck from outerspace that somehow came to be in a city. She also introduced me to my first rated R movie (Coming to America). When I found out it was rated R later I felt very bad about watching it. She seemed to like the part of the movie best that I thought was the worst. As we got a little older she started inventing dirty scenarios with her Barbies. I remember once my mom overheard what she was saying while we were playing I got a ‘birds and the bees’ type lecture.

Before long a girl named Brenda moved in. Brenda had very fuzzy hair and may have been in resource classes. Brenda and Angie became friends and I was sorta Brenda’s  friend by default, although I don’t think I ever really liked her much. Okey also moved in and became friends with us. Brenda and Angie started telling dirty stories on the playground and they made me really uncomfortable so I decided that next time they started to tell a story I would just walk away. I think Okey must have come with me. Walking away from my first dirty story pretty much ended my friendship with Angie and Brenda. I think I remember them asking me why I was leaving and when I explained to them that I was uncomfortable with the stories that they were telling they got mad at me. I even think that they threatened to spread rumors about me if I walked away. After that Brenda became especially nasty and mean to me. She actually did make up a rumor to spread. She ran around the playground yelling that I liked to put ‘dirty pads’ on my head. Luckily, that was the best she could do. I actually remember being relieved that her rumor was so dumb. Her story got no mileage and I just ignored her and eventually things just calmed down, we just weren’t friends anymore.

I finished out Elementary school with Okey as my best friend. Okey came from a poor family with several little sisters, I think she was the oldest. Her whole family had 70s style hair cuts with lots of layers. They rented a rundown old house on State Route 18.  I think they were renting the house.  I remember it was decorated with things that had animal prints on them and that they used a kerosene heater placed in the  middle of the room.  Okey rode my bus, but got on at the end of the route. I remember the kids on the bus were cruel, they used to sing “Okey, from Okinawa” when she got on the bus. Besides being a little dorky, she was a good friend. She shared an attic room with her two sisters and was ‘New Kids on The Block’ fan. I think I remember that she had lots of buttons on her jean jacket and at least a few were of the "New Kids on The Block.’

I had Mrs. Moyer for third grade and then again for third/fourth split.    She was my favorite teacher and I think I may have been her favorite student. At one point I got a C on my report card and I think she didn’t want me to feel bad about it because she gave me a Bernstein Bears Calendar for having ‘the highest C average.’ Ironically, I don’t think she gave out gifts to the students who got all As and Bs. One day she told me that she was impressed with how I had overcome my learning disability. She said something like “If I hadn’t looked in your records, I wouldn’t have known you had a learning disability.” Mrs. Moyer was unique in many ways. After lunch she would have one student read at her desk while she walked around giving us back and shoulder massages. She also had a big jar of peanuts on her desk that she’d give out as rewards. I remember my favorite part of the peanut was the salted peanut shell. Later in life when I had salted peanut shells, I was surprised to find that they weren’t nearly as good as I had remembered them. One time, Mrs. Moyer brought in a wheat grinder and we ground our own wheat and made fresh bread in class. I also remember her giving the class the deodorant lecture in our reading circles. I don’t remember how she said it, but I do remember her saying that some of us were starting to stink and that it was time for deodorant. For some reason, I picture a sweaty tall boy named Cory at the table and thinking that he was the one who needed deodorant.

In fifth grade I had Mrs. Thom (at least I think that’s how you spell her name). She had short blondish hair and she was an older lady. I honestly don’t remember much about her or my seventh grade teacher, Mr. Zirger. All I can remember about him is that he was male and had a mustashe. He may have had reddish brown hair.

Read Part One

I went to Clinton Elementary school from Kindergarten through 6th grade. Of all the elementary schools in our school district, I thought Clinton was the most attractive. It was located in the middle of the country with big white columns in the front. I have a very imperfect memory of things so I’ll do my best to write what I recall.

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