It was a week of getting assigned a lot of homework and struggling to get any of it done. I really missed my typewriter. I made some progress on newspaper stories, and working on my book case. There were a few significant things that happened of note.
Mom and Dad went to Winnipeg for the day. Mondays were always Dad's day off. Occasionally they would head north. The bummer was that the planetarium in Winnipeg was always closed on Monday's. While they were gone our cat Neko got into a fight. It was really loud and I called him a few times. When he finally came I took him in the back bathroom to check him out. He had blood drops all over him but they seemed to be from the stray that wondered into his turf. I didn’t find any wounds but his claws were splintered and bloody. After I cleaned him up I sat on the floor in the back hall and held him. He purred and because we never cleaned his teeth, after a few minutes he started to drool profusely, so I put him back outside.
Friday in Physics I got Peter and Kevin as lab partners. We were doing an experiment on the specific heat of metals: The exact project that I had taken to the state science fair two years before. I gave the directions, Peter took measurements, and Kevin did the math. We finished way ahead of every other group and spent the rest of the hour amusing ourselves by tossing ice into boiling water and watching the rapid melt. It was quite captivating, about as cool to watch as a lava lamp. We joked about setting up a Bunsen burner and beaker and melting ice that way as a conversation piece at a party. It was the most fun I had ever had in a science class in high school.
Mrs. Kappel and I had a talk after one of her classes. The volleyball team had one pep rally a year. It was before the last home game of the season and it was an all school pep rally that included the grade school. A major part of it was the acknowledging of each player and manager with a funny, sometimes slightly insulting prize based on inside jokes, personality quirks and incidents that happened during the year. (Why yes this is the inspiration behind the Walther Library Mandatory Student Staff Appreciation Meetings) I was a stat for five years starting in the eighth grade, and on more than one occasion she would use the pep rally to make fun of my difficulty with spelling. The year before she started her little shpeal about me with the words, “We all know that Ruth can’t spell…” Perhaps before she said that there may have been some first graders unaware of my learning disability, but her presentation solved that. It really bothered me. So knowing that it was coming up, I approached her after class one day and told her, in no uncertain terms, that if she made a public joke about my lack of spelling skills at the pep rally I would quit then and there and have nothing more to do with volleyball for the remainder of the season.
That weekend Sarah and Bob came and brought my typewriter with them. It still wasn’t quite right. Sunday it started to really snow. I shoveled the sidewalk and then had to clean it again two hours later. I enjoyed watching San Francisco beat Denver 55-10. Terry had made several bets against the 49ers. I noted that he was going to be "a bit sore in the pocket book come Monday."
REG
lhg edited and approved
Friday, January 22, 2010
Friday, January 15, 2010
Class of 1990 week 20
Monday there was no school. I made a trip to town with Mom to get things I needed to finish my bookcase. I also finally got to work on an LYF newsletter only to find something wrong with my typewriter. It was not giving a clean print, and no matter what I tried it would not improve. That afternoon Mrs. Kapple picked me up in her car to get me to the volleyball game in Langdon. We lost, and it was a long ride back home.
Tuesday was the start of a new semester. I was no longer in Shop but I still had my bookcase to finish. I would be able to come in during study halls and work on it. Computer class was over and we started Senior Math. If Senior Math had been offered in the fall instead of the spring I would have done much better on the Math part of the ACT. All those formulas I couldn't think of in the exam were covered the first week of the class. We also started Business Law with Mr. Hanson. Mrs. Kappel shelved Macbeth for a few weeks so we could get another school newspaper out. The big news of the day was that my Dad received a call to Plumas, Manitoba about two hours northwest of Winnipeg. Mom and I spend all evening playing "what if?" What if I stayed with someone in the congregation so I wouldn't have to move my senior year? How would that impact Sarah's and my financial aid for college? I got to call Sarah and tell her about it, then mom took the phone and I went and watched TV. The Wonder Years was my favorite show in those days.
The next day was a half day with Parent Teacher conferences. Both Mom and Dad went. Mostly my teachers liked me. A few said that they wished I wasn't a senior. Mom and Miss Kassian got into it a bit as Miss Kassian defended the idea that there was nothing wrong with letting Goal Keepers have extra time on the exam.
Thursday was volleyball with Munich. We lost both matches, but were missing three players and just about everyone played their limit. There were no fans as the American Legion in town was sponsoring a fun night. Peter kept the score board and freshmen stat keeper David was gone so Peggy had to do stats with Kevin. The two of them had some sort of argument earlier and Peggy had been sulking all day.
Friday I got a chill first hour that didn't go away until I got home. I fell asleep after school in Dad's chair while I was looking at the new JC Penny catalog. At 5:30 pm Sarah woke me up asking for my car keys. About 10 minutes later she left for Minot. Mom and Dad took my typewriter to Grand Forks and it was left there for repairs.
Saturday we had a home game against Valley. Won the JV in 2. Lost the varsity in 4. Valley was a team we were used to beating in volleyball and since all our other sports we co-oped with them, there was some pride in beating them at the one sport we competed against them in. Peggy was sick and in the end 5th grader Eric kept the score board. He did a perfect job, but nobody really trusted him and people kept asking him if he posted points. We also made use of two eighth grade girls to act as line judges, but they kept missing things and then made bad calls, mostly in our favor. It looked really bad.
Sunday Kayla and Troy read the Sunday School lesson in turns instead of my reading it to them. It was a big deal. Sarah got back home about 5:00 pm and Mom and Dad took her back to UND. I spent the evening writing Rebecca a letter.
REG
lhg edited and approved.
Tuesday was the start of a new semester. I was no longer in Shop but I still had my bookcase to finish. I would be able to come in during study halls and work on it. Computer class was over and we started Senior Math. If Senior Math had been offered in the fall instead of the spring I would have done much better on the Math part of the ACT. All those formulas I couldn't think of in the exam were covered the first week of the class. We also started Business Law with Mr. Hanson. Mrs. Kappel shelved Macbeth for a few weeks so we could get another school newspaper out. The big news of the day was that my Dad received a call to Plumas, Manitoba about two hours northwest of Winnipeg. Mom and I spend all evening playing "what if?" What if I stayed with someone in the congregation so I wouldn't have to move my senior year? How would that impact Sarah's and my financial aid for college? I got to call Sarah and tell her about it, then mom took the phone and I went and watched TV. The Wonder Years was my favorite show in those days.
The next day was a half day with Parent Teacher conferences. Both Mom and Dad went. Mostly my teachers liked me. A few said that they wished I wasn't a senior. Mom and Miss Kassian got into it a bit as Miss Kassian defended the idea that there was nothing wrong with letting Goal Keepers have extra time on the exam.
Thursday was volleyball with Munich. We lost both matches, but were missing three players and just about everyone played their limit. There were no fans as the American Legion in town was sponsoring a fun night. Peter kept the score board and freshmen stat keeper David was gone so Peggy had to do stats with Kevin. The two of them had some sort of argument earlier and Peggy had been sulking all day.
Friday I got a chill first hour that didn't go away until I got home. I fell asleep after school in Dad's chair while I was looking at the new JC Penny catalog. At 5:30 pm Sarah woke me up asking for my car keys. About 10 minutes later she left for Minot. Mom and Dad took my typewriter to Grand Forks and it was left there for repairs.
Saturday we had a home game against Valley. Won the JV in 2. Lost the varsity in 4. Valley was a team we were used to beating in volleyball and since all our other sports we co-oped with them, there was some pride in beating them at the one sport we competed against them in. Peggy was sick and in the end 5th grader Eric kept the score board. He did a perfect job, but nobody really trusted him and people kept asking him if he posted points. We also made use of two eighth grade girls to act as line judges, but they kept missing things and then made bad calls, mostly in our favor. It looked really bad.
Sunday Kayla and Troy read the Sunday School lesson in turns instead of my reading it to them. It was a big deal. Sarah got back home about 5:00 pm and Mom and Dad took her back to UND. I spent the evening writing Rebecca a letter.
REG
lhg edited and approved.
Friday, January 8, 2010
lhg edited and approved
You may notice this tag on many of my blogs. It should be on all of them, but I have a way of forgetting. Without going into all the reasons for this, let me simply say that Mr. Gaba reads and tries to catch all my errors before I post them, thus saving me from embarassment. For instance in returning to me my last post he made this comment, “By the way, there are officially about eleven different acceptable ways to spell pierogi, depending on the country. Yours was none of them. Also technically, pierogi is already a plural form, but in America, it is acceptable to say pierogies.”
REG
lhg edited and approved.
REG
lhg edited and approved.
Class of 1990 Weeks 18 & 19
“Started this New Year the way one should: I got up, showered then went to church.”The rest of the day I spent watching TV with Dad and playing Rummikub with Mom.
Tuesday it was back to school. I forgot my purse that had my eyeglasses in it; Mom and Dad dropped them off at the school on their way to Grand Forks. Jr. Becky quit stating for Volleyball so that night I had to keep both the book and the last touch points by myself. Freshmen Jayson kept the score board, it turned out he was also a fan of Robotech, also hanging out was 7th grader David, my Classmate Jason’s little brother who annoyed me greatly by constantly calling me “Ruthie Baby.”
Mr. Torgeson seemed to take great pleasure in teasing students about the opposite sex. “Who was that ugly girl I saw you with?” was not an uncommon question and I was often surprised at how much relationship news students told him. At times it seemed like he had the best picture of what students were couples and who had a crush on whom. I don’t recall the incident but my journal reports that Peggy royally embarrassed herself in front of Mr. Torgeson on the topic of a New Year’s kiss.
In English we started reading Macbeth. That day the US captured Manuel Noriega.By the end of the week I was dealing with a cold. I was also annoyed and amused by the way Miss Kassian placed us for tests. As I wrote it, “She didn’t want me right beside Cory so she moves me a desk up and I announce, ‘Oh good now I can see “Stephanie’s paper perfectly.” Almost everyone went to the Park River Holliday Basketball Tournament so it was a very quiet afternoon in the school. I was amused by the perception of many of my peers that I had spent all my time at home reading classical literature and studying for school.
Friday after taking a test in English I left school feeling too sick to stick around. Saturday I spent most of the day watching cartoons and other TV, Mom and Dad went to Grand Forks and picked up Sarah from the airport.
Sunday I taught Sunday school and there was church and then I went home and spent much of my afternoon re-reading Robotech books. Pastor & Peggy Watkins came for a visit. They arrived just as Sarah was finishing up a two hour phone call to Bob. We had pierogies for dinner. After I spent a long time entertaining little Hannah Watkins by showing her my bead collection. I helped take down Christmas decorations before bed and found that my cold was starting to get worse again.
Week 18
It seemed like there was always one week in January where, after many sub zero weeks the jet stream would move north and bring up warm air from the gulf and for a few days we would have a most welcome reprieve from winter. The problem was that with ice and snow packed it made everything a very slushy slippery mess, but the ability to step outside and not need hat and gloves more than made up for the muck. On Monday it was over 40 degrees. The roads were very slick. I lost my voice which was annoying since we were finally singing music I liked in chorus.
That night we played Drayton in Volleyball. Peggy officially became a stat again and I was so glad to have her back. We won the game. Volleyball games did not draw many spectators unlike the crowds at a basketball game, but they did have their amusements. A group of guys sat in a single line in end corner of the gym and did the wave, where the bleachers were empty they would point to where the wave would be and then anticipate when it was their turn to stand again. After one round Mr. Dick and two guys from Drayton who were sitting in the corner bleachers by the door would stand up when the arms pointed at them.
Tuesday I got my assignment back from the Institute of Children’s Literature and the deadline for my next assignment, January 30.
Wednesday my classmates all faked having sore throats so they could get out of reading in English. Mrs. Kappel didn’t believe any of us, so even though I could barely speak, I was assigned to read the part of Lady Macbeth which that day constituted more than half of the reading. It got all the way up to 50 outside.
Thursday I had two semester tests including one in Physics. This test lead to yet another conflict with Miss Kassian. Semester tests were limited to the class period. When the period was up so was your time for the test. A few years before Mr. Torgeson had instituted a program in the school called Goal Keepers. The program had the lofty goal of encouraging students to set and meet attainable goals for academic improvement. It was supposed to work like this, each week a student would set a goal for a test or assignment and would speak to the teacher ahead of time. A B average student in math would make a goal of getting an A on their pending math exam and before the test the teacher would sign off on a form stating that the student was aiming for that grade. If they met the grade they would earn a point. After earning five points they would get “Goal Keeper privileges” these included most predominately things like getting dismissed early from class to hang out in the halls or the gym, or before lunch going to lunch early. To keep your privileges you had to try for a point every week. I never participated in the program. First I was an idealist and thought grades were arbitrary and didn’t represent true learning. From my freshman year on I never looked at my report cards. Mom and Dad had a problem with this, but Mom finally reasoned that as long as my grades stayed high enough that State Farm gave us the good student discount she wasn’t going to push the issue. The second reason I didn’t bother with Goal Keepers was that I socially didn’t fit and didn’t see hanging out in the halls as a privilege, but rather an opportunity to feel awkward and invisible. At times I was the only student in the school not getting out of my classes early and most days the cafeteria staff knew that when they saw me they were done serving food for the day. So on that Thursday Miss Kassian let the Goal Keepers start their semester exam early. When I arrived in the classroom they were all taking the test. The term infuriating comes to mind. I was thankful to Mrs. Barker who let me hang out in her office after the period, until I could compose myself. To her credit, while Miss Kassien didn’t agree with me that letting Goal Keepers start the test early constituted an academic advantage that was not a proper privilege in the program, the next day she copied my answers down onto a fresh blank test and gave me ten minutes to go over it. She did however make a point of announcing to the whole class that ultimately I didn’t help my grade any with those ten minutes. I didn’t care, it was the principle that mattered.
Saturday was the Drayton Invitational Volleyball tournament and for the first time in the history of that tourney we stayed in the winning bracket all the way to the championship game. Then we lost to Thompson, ND and since it was a double elimination tournament, we played and lost to them again to take second in the tournament. After the game we headed to Grafton for a pizza party. It was the best we had ever done in a volleyball tournament. I didn’t get home until after 10pm only to find Auntie Norma and Colleen were there. They left Sunday afternoon just as all the cars were pulling into the church parking lot for the annual voters meeting. I spent the afternoon and evening in front of the TV.
REG
lhg edited and approved
Tuesday it was back to school. I forgot my purse that had my eyeglasses in it; Mom and Dad dropped them off at the school on their way to Grand Forks. Jr. Becky quit stating for Volleyball so that night I had to keep both the book and the last touch points by myself. Freshmen Jayson kept the score board, it turned out he was also a fan of Robotech, also hanging out was 7th grader David, my Classmate Jason’s little brother who annoyed me greatly by constantly calling me “Ruthie Baby.”
Mr. Torgeson seemed to take great pleasure in teasing students about the opposite sex. “Who was that ugly girl I saw you with?” was not an uncommon question and I was often surprised at how much relationship news students told him. At times it seemed like he had the best picture of what students were couples and who had a crush on whom. I don’t recall the incident but my journal reports that Peggy royally embarrassed herself in front of Mr. Torgeson on the topic of a New Year’s kiss.
In English we started reading Macbeth. That day the US captured Manuel Noriega.By the end of the week I was dealing with a cold. I was also annoyed and amused by the way Miss Kassian placed us for tests. As I wrote it, “She didn’t want me right beside Cory so she moves me a desk up and I announce, ‘Oh good now I can see “Stephanie’s paper perfectly.” Almost everyone went to the Park River Holliday Basketball Tournament so it was a very quiet afternoon in the school. I was amused by the perception of many of my peers that I had spent all my time at home reading classical literature and studying for school.
Friday after taking a test in English I left school feeling too sick to stick around. Saturday I spent most of the day watching cartoons and other TV, Mom and Dad went to Grand Forks and picked up Sarah from the airport.
Sunday I taught Sunday school and there was church and then I went home and spent much of my afternoon re-reading Robotech books. Pastor & Peggy Watkins came for a visit. They arrived just as Sarah was finishing up a two hour phone call to Bob. We had pierogies for dinner. After I spent a long time entertaining little Hannah Watkins by showing her my bead collection. I helped take down Christmas decorations before bed and found that my cold was starting to get worse again.
Week 18
It seemed like there was always one week in January where, after many sub zero weeks the jet stream would move north and bring up warm air from the gulf and for a few days we would have a most welcome reprieve from winter. The problem was that with ice and snow packed it made everything a very slushy slippery mess, but the ability to step outside and not need hat and gloves more than made up for the muck. On Monday it was over 40 degrees. The roads were very slick. I lost my voice which was annoying since we were finally singing music I liked in chorus.
That night we played Drayton in Volleyball. Peggy officially became a stat again and I was so glad to have her back. We won the game. Volleyball games did not draw many spectators unlike the crowds at a basketball game, but they did have their amusements. A group of guys sat in a single line in end corner of the gym and did the wave, where the bleachers were empty they would point to where the wave would be and then anticipate when it was their turn to stand again. After one round Mr. Dick and two guys from Drayton who were sitting in the corner bleachers by the door would stand up when the arms pointed at them.
Tuesday I got my assignment back from the Institute of Children’s Literature and the deadline for my next assignment, January 30.
Wednesday my classmates all faked having sore throats so they could get out of reading in English. Mrs. Kappel didn’t believe any of us, so even though I could barely speak, I was assigned to read the part of Lady Macbeth which that day constituted more than half of the reading. It got all the way up to 50 outside.
Thursday I had two semester tests including one in Physics. This test lead to yet another conflict with Miss Kassian. Semester tests were limited to the class period. When the period was up so was your time for the test. A few years before Mr. Torgeson had instituted a program in the school called Goal Keepers. The program had the lofty goal of encouraging students to set and meet attainable goals for academic improvement. It was supposed to work like this, each week a student would set a goal for a test or assignment and would speak to the teacher ahead of time. A B average student in math would make a goal of getting an A on their pending math exam and before the test the teacher would sign off on a form stating that the student was aiming for that grade. If they met the grade they would earn a point. After earning five points they would get “Goal Keeper privileges” these included most predominately things like getting dismissed early from class to hang out in the halls or the gym, or before lunch going to lunch early. To keep your privileges you had to try for a point every week. I never participated in the program. First I was an idealist and thought grades were arbitrary and didn’t represent true learning. From my freshman year on I never looked at my report cards. Mom and Dad had a problem with this, but Mom finally reasoned that as long as my grades stayed high enough that State Farm gave us the good student discount she wasn’t going to push the issue. The second reason I didn’t bother with Goal Keepers was that I socially didn’t fit and didn’t see hanging out in the halls as a privilege, but rather an opportunity to feel awkward and invisible. At times I was the only student in the school not getting out of my classes early and most days the cafeteria staff knew that when they saw me they were done serving food for the day. So on that Thursday Miss Kassian let the Goal Keepers start their semester exam early. When I arrived in the classroom they were all taking the test. The term infuriating comes to mind. I was thankful to Mrs. Barker who let me hang out in her office after the period, until I could compose myself. To her credit, while Miss Kassien didn’t agree with me that letting Goal Keepers start the test early constituted an academic advantage that was not a proper privilege in the program, the next day she copied my answers down onto a fresh blank test and gave me ten minutes to go over it. She did however make a point of announcing to the whole class that ultimately I didn’t help my grade any with those ten minutes. I didn’t care, it was the principle that mattered.
Saturday was the Drayton Invitational Volleyball tournament and for the first time in the history of that tourney we stayed in the winning bracket all the way to the championship game. Then we lost to Thompson, ND and since it was a double elimination tournament, we played and lost to them again to take second in the tournament. After the game we headed to Grafton for a pizza party. It was the best we had ever done in a volleyball tournament. I didn’t get home until after 10pm only to find Auntie Norma and Colleen were there. They left Sunday afternoon just as all the cars were pulling into the church parking lot for the annual voters meeting. I spent the afternoon and evening in front of the TV.
REG
lhg edited and approved
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Class of 1990 Week 17 plus Christmas break
Class of 1990 week 17 + Christmas break
The choir was recorded for a Christmas radio broadcast on Monday. In computer class we used a mouse for the first time. I had to stay at school until after the volleyball game that night. I had a Kit Kat for supper. We beat Valley in both the JV and the varsity.
It was a very cold week and Tuesday I left for school early in hopes of getting a good spot to plug in the car. That night mom and I made candy for me to share on Wednesday.
Wednesday was a typical useless day before break. There was exchanging of gifts and I wrote about how dull I found the school Christmas party to be. I mostly hung out in the library and then drew some giant faces on the chalk board in the Home-Ec room. That night the Advent service was canceled due to the extreme cold.
Christmas Break:
Sarah flew to Hong Kong and spent Christmas with Rebecca. That left just me with Mom and Dad at home. I spent a lot of my break playing solitaire, reading Robotech, doing jigsaw puzzles and watching TV including the Simpson’s Christmas special. (The first time the Simpsons ever were featured in their own show.)
Gifts
From classmates
Margo—necklace
Jaci- barrette
Peggy—brush and bracelet
From Sunday school students
Kayla—Address book
Troy—tin of chocolate covered cherries
From Family
Mom and Dad—Pencil sharpener, cassette tape carrying case, a cleaning cassette, & Chocolate mints
Rebecca—a very bright pink sweater with all sorts of wild appliqués on it, A coin purse made out of a sea shell a barrette made with shells (she got them in the Philippians) and a blue and white vase and matching cat (the vase and cat are the only gifts that I still own—they survived the fire without damage.)
Sarah—a green sweatshirt that she decorated with a counted cross stitch panda holding balloons that spelled my name. Originally she had planned to work on it on the plane going to Hong Kong, but finals week at UND was so dull that she finished the gift before her break and I got my gift at Christmas.
Grandma—Sony walkman
Auntie Norma—a large dictionary
After church on Christmas Eve Mom and Dad and I used the smoked crystal glasses that Mom had gotten from her dad. We rarely used them as there were only four glasses, and five in the family. After the move back from Japan the glasses were unavailable to enlarge the set. That night I dropped my glass and it hit the side of a china plate and broke, so now there are only three of them.
Christmas church got cancelled due to weather, but it cleared up enough that we braved very icy roads and headed to Winnipeg. It was an unusual trip in that for the first and only time I spent it hanging out with my cousin Colleen. I rode along when she took Grandma home.
Boxing Day Auntie Norma hosted an open house. In the morning Colleen and I went shopping. She got jeans and a sweater that was almost as loud and crazy as the one Rebecca sent me. We also needed to find cinnamon for Auntie Norma and ended up finally finding some at the second 7-11 we stopped at. Grocery stores were closed for the holiday but most mall stores were open. Go figure.
The open house was attended by a lot of extended family of the Weitzel and Schaefer variety.
As I wrote in my journal
Q: how do you tell a Schaefer from a Weitzel?
A: Weitzels stand, talk, and eat; Schaefers sit quietly, and don’t touch the food.
We came back home on the 27th. The next day I went to Cavalier to see the dentist. Mom gave me permission to refuse the fluoride treatment—they always made me gag. Dr. Olson tried to give one to me, “What would your mother think?” he asked.
“She said I could say no.”
“All right, but if you get a cavity next time I’ll give you two!”
Bob gave our family the game Rummikub and I spent a lot of time playing it with mom. Occasionally we even got Dad to join us.
On the 31st there was a Lutheran Youth Fellowship Zone Rally at Turtle River State Park. It was a sledding party. I took one run down the hill and then went inside and watched people and hung out with my LYF friends.
I ended the year babysitting. It was not a fun gig, and when I got home I thanked my parents for disciplining me. I made $10 for watching three very poorly behaved kids & I promised myself to never spend New Year’s Eve babysitting again.
The choir was recorded for a Christmas radio broadcast on Monday. In computer class we used a mouse for the first time. I had to stay at school until after the volleyball game that night. I had a Kit Kat for supper. We beat Valley in both the JV and the varsity.
It was a very cold week and Tuesday I left for school early in hopes of getting a good spot to plug in the car. That night mom and I made candy for me to share on Wednesday.
Wednesday was a typical useless day before break. There was exchanging of gifts and I wrote about how dull I found the school Christmas party to be. I mostly hung out in the library and then drew some giant faces on the chalk board in the Home-Ec room. That night the Advent service was canceled due to the extreme cold.
Christmas Break:
Sarah flew to Hong Kong and spent Christmas with Rebecca. That left just me with Mom and Dad at home. I spent a lot of my break playing solitaire, reading Robotech, doing jigsaw puzzles and watching TV including the Simpson’s Christmas special. (The first time the Simpsons ever were featured in their own show.)
Gifts
From classmates
Margo—necklace
Jaci- barrette
Peggy—brush and bracelet
From Sunday school students
Kayla—Address book
Troy—tin of chocolate covered cherries
From Family
Mom and Dad—Pencil sharpener, cassette tape carrying case, a cleaning cassette, & Chocolate mints
Rebecca—a very bright pink sweater with all sorts of wild appliqués on it, A coin purse made out of a sea shell a barrette made with shells (she got them in the Philippians) and a blue and white vase and matching cat (the vase and cat are the only gifts that I still own—they survived the fire without damage.)
Sarah—a green sweatshirt that she decorated with a counted cross stitch panda holding balloons that spelled my name. Originally she had planned to work on it on the plane going to Hong Kong, but finals week at UND was so dull that she finished the gift before her break and I got my gift at Christmas.
Grandma—Sony walkman
Auntie Norma—a large dictionary
After church on Christmas Eve Mom and Dad and I used the smoked crystal glasses that Mom had gotten from her dad. We rarely used them as there were only four glasses, and five in the family. After the move back from Japan the glasses were unavailable to enlarge the set. That night I dropped my glass and it hit the side of a china plate and broke, so now there are only three of them.
Christmas church got cancelled due to weather, but it cleared up enough that we braved very icy roads and headed to Winnipeg. It was an unusual trip in that for the first and only time I spent it hanging out with my cousin Colleen. I rode along when she took Grandma home.
Boxing Day Auntie Norma hosted an open house. In the morning Colleen and I went shopping. She got jeans and a sweater that was almost as loud and crazy as the one Rebecca sent me. We also needed to find cinnamon for Auntie Norma and ended up finally finding some at the second 7-11 we stopped at. Grocery stores were closed for the holiday but most mall stores were open. Go figure.
The open house was attended by a lot of extended family of the Weitzel and Schaefer variety.
As I wrote in my journal
Q: how do you tell a Schaefer from a Weitzel?
A: Weitzels stand, talk, and eat; Schaefers sit quietly, and don’t touch the food.
We came back home on the 27th. The next day I went to Cavalier to see the dentist. Mom gave me permission to refuse the fluoride treatment—they always made me gag. Dr. Olson tried to give one to me, “What would your mother think?” he asked.
“She said I could say no.”
“All right, but if you get a cavity next time I’ll give you two!”
Bob gave our family the game Rummikub and I spent a lot of time playing it with mom. Occasionally we even got Dad to join us.
On the 31st there was a Lutheran Youth Fellowship Zone Rally at Turtle River State Park. It was a sledding party. I took one run down the hill and then went inside and watched people and hung out with my LYF friends.
I ended the year babysitting. It was not a fun gig, and when I got home I thanked my parents for disciplining me. I made $10 for watching three very poorly behaved kids & I promised myself to never spend New Year’s Eve babysitting again.
Friday, December 11, 2009
Class of 1990 week 16
Monday was one of those terrible long days. Since Mom took one car to Winnipeg Dad had to take me to school, and since there was a game that night I didn’t get to go home until after the game. I filled the time by writing letters and working on a one woman play I had dreamed up the night before. In volleyball we played Park River. Peggy had stated that she didn’t want to be a student manager but she showed up for the game and ended up first keeping the score board and then keeping last touch points. We had a lot of fun working together again. As I wrote it then, “So here’s to Peggy, the best score keeper in the world. She never messes up. That’s why she gets to drink out of the players water bottles. [She made 4 mess-ups on the board]”
On Tuesday I suggested to Dad that it would be a wonderful surprise for Mom if we got the tree before she got home. So after school we went to Cavalier and got a small tree. I set it up on a box and decorated it.
In shop class Mr. Lloyd had forgotten some wood that he promised to bring me, leftovers from a project a student did in Drayton. So I spent shop class writing out Christmas cards. I was treated to a conversation where my classmates discussed the first time they swore in front of their parents.
Wednesday the high was -20. In English class we assembled the newspaper. There was no Phy-Ed as we were taking team pictures. For the fifth year I posed in the back of the volleyball team picture. I had started keeping books in the 8th grade.
Mom got home. She really liked the tree. Attendance at the midweek Advent service was really poor. Afterward Mom and I drank tea and talked till after 11:00pm.
Thursday was even colder. It was the school “Christmas” concert. Since I was in about the 5th or 6th grade the highlight of the concert was a play featuring Santa put on by the 1st-8th grade and then a few selections by the bands and the high school choir.
Friday we got assigned more homework than the rest of the week combined. Heidi, Mrs. Hollis’s daughter, was home from basic training and hung out at the school a bit. After school Mom and Dad picked me up and we went to Grand Forks to go out for supper and do some Christmas shopping. I also bought a book for myself.
Saturday I went to the Sunday school children’s program practice. It went well. I spent the rest of the day reading my book and doing odd jobs including making a cake for the party after the Christmas program Sunday night.
Sunday I taught Sunday school before church and then relaxed in the afternoon. That evening was the Sunday school program at church and after we had a birthday party for Jesus. There was a really good turn out for it. I spent some of it visiting with Heidi.
REG
lhg edited and approved.
On Tuesday I suggested to Dad that it would be a wonderful surprise for Mom if we got the tree before she got home. So after school we went to Cavalier and got a small tree. I set it up on a box and decorated it.
In shop class Mr. Lloyd had forgotten some wood that he promised to bring me, leftovers from a project a student did in Drayton. So I spent shop class writing out Christmas cards. I was treated to a conversation where my classmates discussed the first time they swore in front of their parents.
Wednesday the high was -20. In English class we assembled the newspaper. There was no Phy-Ed as we were taking team pictures. For the fifth year I posed in the back of the volleyball team picture. I had started keeping books in the 8th grade.
Mom got home. She really liked the tree. Attendance at the midweek Advent service was really poor. Afterward Mom and I drank tea and talked till after 11:00pm.
Thursday was even colder. It was the school “Christmas” concert. Since I was in about the 5th or 6th grade the highlight of the concert was a play featuring Santa put on by the 1st-8th grade and then a few selections by the bands and the high school choir.
Friday we got assigned more homework than the rest of the week combined. Heidi, Mrs. Hollis’s daughter, was home from basic training and hung out at the school a bit. After school Mom and Dad picked me up and we went to Grand Forks to go out for supper and do some Christmas shopping. I also bought a book for myself.
Saturday I went to the Sunday school children’s program practice. It went well. I spent the rest of the day reading my book and doing odd jobs including making a cake for the party after the Christmas program Sunday night.
Sunday I taught Sunday school before church and then relaxed in the afternoon. That evening was the Sunday school program at church and after we had a birthday party for Jesus. There was a really good turn out for it. I spent some of it visiting with Heidi.
REG
lhg edited and approved.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Class of 1990 Weeks 14 & 15
These two weeks were marked by a few things.
Volleyball:
I finished the posters and the guys put them up. I thought they were rather ingenious. I had a whistle person blowing a whistle for the coach. Pencil people holding pencils for the student managers and for the players it was knee pad people wearing knee pads. Half were setting and half were bumping-on their knees of course. I thought they were cute and was proud of my design until someone from a visiting team asked what washing machines had to do with volleyball.
Monday Dec 4 was the start of the season with a game in Walhalla. For games in Walhalla and Cavalier the team bus had to pass our road and so I would be picked up and dropped off for those games. When we played Minto we picked up Mrs. Kappel who lived in Grafton. After the game we stopped at the Hardees in Grafton (the only year round fast food place in that corner of ND) Mrs. Kappel treated us all to fries. I got a hot ham-n-cheese & a big cookie.
Newspaper:
My plan to write a story on education reform was shot out of the water and replaced with one that would have me interviewing my Dad about his impressions about the fall of communism in Europe. That proved to be difficult. Dad was finishing up a letter he was handwriting to Rebecca and he read it to me. It gave me a lot of insight, but nothing I could really use in my story. It took a few more times to get what I needed for my story. I asked Dad questions and he wrote out his carefully crafted answers that I worked into my story.For my column I wrote about "heater gangs." To understand this you need to realize that our school hallways were carpeted. As I wrote it then:
Szedlak, Ruth. "Nothing by Nobody." Knight Life 2 Dec 1989: 3,12. Print.
In getting the newspaper ready for publication Mrs. Kappel had to be with the 8th graders for a Home-Ec Kids party. So my class was left in the typing room with no supervision. At first there was some telling of off color jokes but then there was the fear that the office might be listening in on the intercom so Peter and Kevin led us all in a sing-a-long as we worked. We sang the theme from the Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres, Gilligan's Island, Brady Bunch, & Sunny Days from Sesame Street.-along with singing to 12. We also sang to Kenny Roger's The Gambler and a grade school music class song of "Scratch Scratch My Back."
Cold:
A requirement of all sweaters and sweatshirts was that the sleeves were loose enough at the wrist for me to fold my arms inside of the sleeves. This generally discouraged me from wanting to take notes. Also in the bitter cold of winter there were two options for parking. You could park on the wall protected from the north wind that did not have outlets, or you could park on the west side of the gym and plug in the cars block heater but be totally exposed to the wind. The rule for me was that the temp had to be minus 0 before I would be willing to deal with the wind chill.
On the first day of school each kid that lived outside of the city of St. Thomas had to register a storm family. That is the family you would stay with if a storm came up and it wasn't safe to go home. I kept a survival kit in the trunk of my car that included a change of clothes for such occasions. My storm family was the Hollis' who conveniently live across the street from the school.
I had one occasion in week 14 where I realized that I really shouldn't be driving home. Mom and Dad were out of town, but I wanted to sleep in my own bed so without talking to anyone and with no one at home waiting for me I headed out. Visibility was terrible. When I turned from Highway 81 to County Road 3 I couldn't see more than twenty feet and it was as I rounded the corner that I saw the headlights of the Greyhound bus coming at me from Highway 81. I had enough time to make the corner but on a normal visibility day I would have never attempted to beat the bus. When I got home and put the car in the garage & turned aruond. I could just barely make out the church across the road. There was no way I should have been out there.
ICL:
Two months and twenty days past my deadline I finally mailed my assignment for the Institute of Children's Literature. Mom let me know that if I ever missed another deadline she would be taking the tuition money out of my allowance.
ACT results:
I got my ACT score back and I was happy with the results. Concordia University required an 18 to apply and I had well above that. My lowest score was in Math. I was happy with it as I drew a complete blank on some of the formulas I needed for the problems, but Mr. Green (school vocational counselor) was standing over my shoulder and when he saw my scores he said, "Ruth, the math, what happened?"
"I'm not Sarah."I replied. My sister had a perfect score on the math portion. I wanted to hit him. Why did people always assume that I should be just like my sisters. That sort of assumption was a large part of the reason I was so eager to get out of St. Thomas and go somewhere to college that my sisters had never been.
It should be noted-as I made special mention of it in my journal, that Terry, who I often did not get along with, did me a favor on December 6th. I was sitting by the Pop machines and asked him to get my dictionary, and he did!
At home:
We called Rebecca on her birthday before I left for school. Hong Kong being 12 hrs ahead of North Dakota. She was glad to be a world away from our icy roads and freezing temps.
Saturday Dec 9th I was babysitting the Bigwoods again. I got a call from Dad. Dad and Pastor Rothchild in Bottineau were switching pulpits on Sunday so Rev. Rothchild would be close enough to Minnesota to attend his brothers ordination-(or instillation-something like that) Anyway Mom and Dad had traveled to Bottineau and were staying at a member's home when dad realized that he had left his sermon behind. When I got home from babysitting I was to locate it and call the number. I didn't get home until 2am. The phone at the farm house rang about 20 times before dad picked it up. He had managed to reconstruct most of his sermon but I read him the bits that he needed. It took a little bit as it was written in his tiny script and his own personal short hand. Sunday Mom and Dad got home at 3pm and an hour later Mom left for two days in Winnipeg.
REG
lhg edited and approved
Volleyball:
I finished the posters and the guys put them up. I thought they were rather ingenious. I had a whistle person blowing a whistle for the coach. Pencil people holding pencils for the student managers and for the players it was knee pad people wearing knee pads. Half were setting and half were bumping-on their knees of course. I thought they were cute and was proud of my design until someone from a visiting team asked what washing machines had to do with volleyball.
Monday Dec 4 was the start of the season with a game in Walhalla. For games in Walhalla and Cavalier the team bus had to pass our road and so I would be picked up and dropped off for those games. When we played Minto we picked up Mrs. Kappel who lived in Grafton. After the game we stopped at the Hardees in Grafton (the only year round fast food place in that corner of ND) Mrs. Kappel treated us all to fries. I got a hot ham-n-cheese & a big cookie.
Newspaper:
My plan to write a story on education reform was shot out of the water and replaced with one that would have me interviewing my Dad about his impressions about the fall of communism in Europe. That proved to be difficult. Dad was finishing up a letter he was handwriting to Rebecca and he read it to me. It gave me a lot of insight, but nothing I could really use in my story. It took a few more times to get what I needed for my story. I asked Dad questions and he wrote out his carefully crafted answers that I worked into my story.For my column I wrote about "heater gangs." To understand this you need to realize that our school hallways were carpeted. As I wrote it then:
I hate being cold. My teeth chatter. My hands turn deep purple. My muscles twitch in an unfashionable manner. My whole body goes rigid and I break out in unsightly goose bumps.
No doubt about it; being cold ranks up there with fluoride treatments and stubbing my toe.
Not long ago I heard a mother complain that her son never knew what to wear to school in the winter. "The bus is so cold and you don't dare wear a sweater to school, unless you want to burn up, " she said.
No Kidding? This really happened. Obviously this woman was not from St. Thomas. First, we do not have any school buses and more importantly, in our school you have to warm up to be cool.
What do you expect form a school where one's social status can be determined by what heater one sits by?
Some schools have cliques and clubs. STHS has heater gangs.
With an average hall temperature at 65 degrees Fahrenheit, is it any wonder that the most asked question at the beginning of the noon hour has become, "Are they on?"If you keep your eyes open you can learn a lot about this phenomenon.
First of all the heaters are ranked. The most popular one is the one by the gym door where the morning crowd hangs out. This is followed by the one next to pop machines. Next in the rank is the heater by the canteen. Then if you're absolutely desperate there is always the one between the two bathrooms.
Approximately three people can sit comfortably across one heater. If all the heaters are used about 12 persons get the privilege of roasting their backs.
Certain rules are understood concerning the heaters:
First come; first serve. The early bird gets the best spot.
Secondly, you can only hog a heater if you're saving a spot for someone; otherwise you must share.
Lastly, once you get up you've lost your spot.
I have a theory about the cold halls of STHS. Maybe by sitting up against the heaters we're blocking the flow of warm air, and the school would be warmer if we would all back off.
Of course, this is just a theory and not one to be tested anytime soon. So in the meantime, wear a sweater, and as you scramble down the hall ask the magic question: "Are they on?" Then, try to get a good spot.
Szedlak, Ruth. "Nothing by Nobody." Knight Life 2 Dec 1989: 3,12. Print.
In getting the newspaper ready for publication Mrs. Kappel had to be with the 8th graders for a Home-Ec Kids party. So my class was left in the typing room with no supervision. At first there was some telling of off color jokes but then there was the fear that the office might be listening in on the intercom so Peter and Kevin led us all in a sing-a-long as we worked. We sang the theme from the Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres, Gilligan's Island, Brady Bunch, & Sunny Days from Sesame Street.-along with singing to 12. We also sang to Kenny Roger's The Gambler and a grade school music class song of "Scratch Scratch My Back."
Cold:
A requirement of all sweaters and sweatshirts was that the sleeves were loose enough at the wrist for me to fold my arms inside of the sleeves. This generally discouraged me from wanting to take notes. Also in the bitter cold of winter there were two options for parking. You could park on the wall protected from the north wind that did not have outlets, or you could park on the west side of the gym and plug in the cars block heater but be totally exposed to the wind. The rule for me was that the temp had to be minus 0 before I would be willing to deal with the wind chill.
On the first day of school each kid that lived outside of the city of St. Thomas had to register a storm family. That is the family you would stay with if a storm came up and it wasn't safe to go home. I kept a survival kit in the trunk of my car that included a change of clothes for such occasions. My storm family was the Hollis' who conveniently live across the street from the school.
I had one occasion in week 14 where I realized that I really shouldn't be driving home. Mom and Dad were out of town, but I wanted to sleep in my own bed so without talking to anyone and with no one at home waiting for me I headed out. Visibility was terrible. When I turned from Highway 81 to County Road 3 I couldn't see more than twenty feet and it was as I rounded the corner that I saw the headlights of the Greyhound bus coming at me from Highway 81. I had enough time to make the corner but on a normal visibility day I would have never attempted to beat the bus. When I got home and put the car in the garage & turned aruond. I could just barely make out the church across the road. There was no way I should have been out there.
ICL:
Two months and twenty days past my deadline I finally mailed my assignment for the Institute of Children's Literature. Mom let me know that if I ever missed another deadline she would be taking the tuition money out of my allowance.
ACT results:
I got my ACT score back and I was happy with the results. Concordia University required an 18 to apply and I had well above that. My lowest score was in Math. I was happy with it as I drew a complete blank on some of the formulas I needed for the problems, but Mr. Green (school vocational counselor) was standing over my shoulder and when he saw my scores he said, "Ruth, the math, what happened?"
"I'm not Sarah."I replied. My sister had a perfect score on the math portion. I wanted to hit him. Why did people always assume that I should be just like my sisters. That sort of assumption was a large part of the reason I was so eager to get out of St. Thomas and go somewhere to college that my sisters had never been.
It should be noted-as I made special mention of it in my journal, that Terry, who I often did not get along with, did me a favor on December 6th. I was sitting by the Pop machines and asked him to get my dictionary, and he did!
At home:
We called Rebecca on her birthday before I left for school. Hong Kong being 12 hrs ahead of North Dakota. She was glad to be a world away from our icy roads and freezing temps.
Saturday Dec 9th I was babysitting the Bigwoods again. I got a call from Dad. Dad and Pastor Rothchild in Bottineau were switching pulpits on Sunday so Rev. Rothchild would be close enough to Minnesota to attend his brothers ordination-(or instillation-something like that) Anyway Mom and Dad had traveled to Bottineau and were staying at a member's home when dad realized that he had left his sermon behind. When I got home from babysitting I was to locate it and call the number. I didn't get home until 2am. The phone at the farm house rang about 20 times before dad picked it up. He had managed to reconstruct most of his sermon but I read him the bits that he needed. It took a little bit as it was written in his tiny script and his own personal short hand. Sunday Mom and Dad got home at 3pm and an hour later Mom left for two days in Winnipeg.
REG
lhg edited and approved
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)