Comments on: Childhood is gone…Turner Classic Film at 11.

By: Indyanna

Indyanna — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 04:10:13 +0000

The killer part was that resentment of our privilege by the other five classes of sixth-graders stoked a rumor that we were the “dumb” class, and you can imagine what happened next. Kids got riled up, parents descended, fingers were pointed (esp. at the kids in Mr. Finger’s class–the only male teacher in the whole elementary school save for the gym guy–supposedly the “smart” kids), a total PR nightmare for the administrators! Oh, yeah, and I witlessly rabble-roused on the stairs on a class expedition downstairs to the Library one day and got our model-building privilege briefly suspended. That’s when I learned about the phenomenon of school bullies. Had to get “sick” for a few days until the crisis blew over…

By: Historiann

Historiann — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 02:53:10 +0000

MMMmmm…Indyanna, that story takes the cake! I bet you also followed the DDT truck around as it belched out poison, too! Actually, while I was born too late to huff the DDT, I’m amazed at the absence of car safety well into the 1980s. We 1970s kids bounced around like leftover snacks in the back of someone’s mom’s big old station wagon–in the way back, like luggage!

How did we ever survive?

By: Bing McGhandi

Bing McGhandi — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 02:53:02 +0000

You know, a lot of the things that I did in grade school are just illegal now. Get in a fight at high school or even grade school and they’ll arrest you. Ridiculous.

Luckily, I can still duke it out with other graduate students.

By: Indyanna

Indyanna — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 20:52:27 +0000

Mimeos were great, but I had a sixth-grade teacher whose husband worked for the Revell Plastics Corporation, the premo maker of much-assembly-required plastic models. Every second or third Friday she brought in huge bags of seconds (when we were good). It was “all-glue, all-the-time” from about 2 p.m. until dismissal, making tankers, tanks, F-100s, racing cars, and the occasional hollowed superhero. And that was nothing compared to the day new wrestling mats arrived at school in the 10th grade, and we got to help roll them out. They seemed to have been shipped in layers of white powder that smelled (and affected us) exactly like purest airplane glue. The pre-Zero Tollerance world was a great place to grow up in!

By: Historiann

Historiann — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 19:56:07 +0000

Mmmmmnnnn…I’m on leave this year, so I forgot the olfactory pleasures of whiteboard markers that will almost make up for my having to teach again in the fall…

And Ortho: yes, brain damage not necessary but helpful in our line of work.

By: Knitting Clio

Knitting Clio — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 19:10:50 +0000

We had a mimeograph machine at my University until the mid-1990s, when it finally broke and couldn’t be fixed because there were no parts.

re: markers — we’ve switched from chalkboards to whiteboards. I like them because they are less messy but I have a colleague who is so sensitive to fumes that she has to teach in one of the few classrooms that still have chalkboards.

By: ortho stice

ortho stice — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 18:57:54 +0000

Historiann, I’m happy Principal Benisch suspended the Sharpie-sniffing child. Young Eathan obviously has an addiction problem and needs counseling. I hope he gets the help that he, as a white-male American child, deserves. After all, he represents our collective future.

When I was a child, I began to sniff Mr. Sketch’s blue markers, which smell like blueberries. To this day, my right nostril is stained a purplish blue. My parents hypothesize that my out-of-control sniffing habit may have led to brain damage, which in turn, might have led to my decision to pursue a graduate degree in the humanities.

By: Historiann

Historiann — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 17:41:50 +0000

Eeew? By the time you finished one leg, you’d have to start immediately on the other leg because it would have grown back in! Talk about limitless boredom and self-loathing. What’s wrong with shaving? It’s inexpensive, it doesn’t stink, and it doesn’t hurt if you do it carefully. (And even then, I’m betting that a little cut on the knee is much less painful than recovery from a waxing session…)

By: Sisyphus

Sisyphus — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 17:09:25 +0000

I remember purple mimeographs! Maybe my impoverished public school was late transitioning to new technology.

And you forgot the smell of rubber cement too, and the fun way it dried up enough to roll into little glue boogers and throw at people and stick to things.

Last year in a WS class we read an article about the 60s fashion system — I don’t think it was Bordo, it might have been Sandra Bartky — that had a quote from a jet-setter and model that one year she was so bored she pulled out every one of her leg hairs with tweezers. We spent the whole discussion section on that one comment.