School Daze

Poor little caterpillar climbing up a tree,

Wishing every day to be pretty as can be

The world thought her ugly, the world called her slow

But her faith in God gave her the courage to go

~ Gemini Joe ~

n my family, I was the last one onboard so I got a lot of hand me downs. Most of them were old and worn and some were too big. They ended up in my closet even though I tried to hide them. I always remember that hand-me-down song. You know, Secondhand Rose.

One time I was going to school and it was cold. My mom put one of my brother’s sweaters on me. The elbows were ripped and it was too big. The sleeves were long, but that was good, because my nose was always running and I had something to wipe it on. I was worried because everyone was going to look at this ripped sweater and laugh at me. I didn’t know what to do. Then, I got an idea.

Instead of waiting for the other kids to notice, I went into the school and said, “Hey guys, look at this sweater. I can pull my hands up into the sleeve and stick my fingers out of the holes.”

It worked and everyone laughed. I did too, on the outside anyway.

When it came to my studies, I didn’t do well, but I loved anything artistic.

During the holidays, I had to report down to the principal’s office. I said “Whoa!” I am in trouble. I don’t remember his name, but he asked me to draw pictures on all the windows around his office—snowflakes, snowmen, and reindeer. I must have had a gift for drawing, because the teachers recognized my talent. Even the principal knew about me. “Wow! This looks like church glass,” he said. “The sunlight coming through is giving me a rainbow.”

He always put his hands on my shoulder. I think he liked me. I was glad to make him happy. I tried very hard, you know.

After that, almost all holidays I was sent down at the principal’s office to paint Santa Claus, Frosty the Snowman, Turkeys and the Easter bunny. You name it. Whatever the holiday was, he wanted me to paint the characters.

My mother’s side of the family was very handy people. I think I got that creativity from them. My Aunt and Uncle came from Italy upon the request of someone in Hollywood. They were asked to work on the film Huckleberry Finn. My uncle did all the scenery in the cave with Indian Joe and my aunt did the makeup for all the actors and actresses.

So that’s what I was doing. Instead of me learning arithmetic or reading, the school graded me on my artwork. That was strange.

The teacher was smart. She made us kids vote for a class captain to take over the class whenever she had to leave. When you became captain and teacher had to go do something, you had to keep the class in control. The funny thing is that they always voted me in as captain. That bothered me. Sometimes, I felt like I was set apart from the other kids. I got most of the votes from the girls. I wanted to be part of the class and one of the boys. I thought I was going to be like a Sissy-Mary, but I handled it.

I guess a have a competitive nature. I wanted to be the best at everything. So when the teacher told us to come to school the next day with sneakers for a race, I had a problem. I didn’t have sneakers.

I went home and told my mom and dad, but they had no sneakers for me. Instead, they gave me one of my brother’s old pair of sneakers. They were a little large and one lace was shorter than the other was and tied together by a knot.

My dad said, “Try them out and see if they fit.”

I tightened the laces and went outside. I started running around, but they kept falling off.

I went back to my father and I said, “Dad they’re too big for me.”

“Okay, take them off and I’ll fix them. Go and get a pair of socks.”

“What are you going to do with socks?” I asked.

“You’ll see,” he said and stuffed one sock in the toe of each sneaker.

I put them on and went outside again. This time, the sneakers didn’t fall off and I could run a little faster. Boy, I was fast and I was happy.

The next day at school, the teacher announced we were going outside to the schoolyard for the race. I waited for the teacher to blow the whistle.

Determined to win, I glanced at the kids who also wanted to win. The teacher gave the signal and I shot forward like a rocket. At first, I was in the lead, but all of a sudden, the sneakers felt loose and I found it hard to keep my feet in them. One flew off and I fell. The other kids ran past me.

That night, when I told my father what had happened, he promised to buy me a new pair of sneakers, but I no longer had a desire to race.