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Home > Michelle's Blog > Previous Postings > 4/16/08
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Previous Postings |
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April 16, 2008:
I SwearDo you remember your “Firsts”? Like your first day in Kindergarten? Your first Kiss? Your first haircut? Your first cigarette? The first time you swore?
I remember in third grade, my teacher, Mrs. Anderson, had us work in pairs – one boy and one girl – and we had to write a story and then act it out. (Hmmmm – I wonder where I got my ability to get people to do skits at our User Conference??? I guess I learned it very early.) My partner, Darrel Fondroy, and I wrote a skit about a queen and her servant. At one point, when we were acting it out to the rest of the class and the teacher, I said as part of my dialogue, “The queen was a real B_ _ ch!!! (rhymes with itch, which was what my body started to do when I saw my teachers face.)
I didn’t know this was a bad word because I had heard it at home. I just thought it meant the queen was mean. I think I had heard it when my mom and her brothers and sisters would have water fights while they were playing cards. I learned very early how to choose my words carefully when speaking in front of groups.
My first kiss was from “Seth” Benna (named changed to protect the innocent). We were in fifth grade and went to my fort in the woods, where he talked me into it by saying he needed practice for his “real” girlfriend – “Mia” Zipf (also changed to protect my friend, but if you are reading this “Mia” – sorry about the small change to your name.)My first day in Kindergarten was only memorable to me because my teacher, Mrs. Engelberg, pulled my hair to get me back into line to go to lunch. Who knew that you had to stand in line to eat? I was used to fighting for all my food. Darn 7 brothers!
My first cigarette was not really me smoking, as this might suggest. I never really smoked, but I had to do something to tell the story about a pack of empty cigarettes that I found once as a kid. It had the word “butt” on it, as in cigarette butt, and I thought it was a swear word and the cigarette company had made a mistake and put a naughty word on their pack. (I had been taught that “butt” was naughty and “but” was nice.) I hid it for weeks under my bed and would pull it out and look at it every day, giggling and feeling very devious. I’m sure it was the same feeling a boy would get looking at his first “Playboy.” WOW was I naive!!
I can’t really remember my first haircut, but this is a good lead-in to my next Blog – “Haircuts”, because, as I may not be able to remember my first one, I have some great stories about haircuts that I’d love to share. I’d also like to share your haircut stories, so if you have any, please send them my way.Keep smiling….
Michelle
