Second Grade

We were forbidden from using the white colored crayon, because the teacher and the teaching aide could not easily see if a student had used it (OK), or if the student neglected to color (not OK) a bit of the picture (usually a person's skin).

Back then, the school bus would drop us off at church, even though we attended a public school. The students would attend church, then religion class, then make the short walk over to the school, where we'd meet our protestant peers and begin the regular school day. One morning during Mass, a first grade girl got sick -- she vomited onto the pew in front of her. It happened that I was sitting in that pew, blissfully unaware of her illness, until a classmate, Keith, reacted to the situation. He didn't want his bookbag be soaked in vomit, so he moved my bag a bit, and then put his atop mine. One of the Sisters came to clean up the mess, but she couldn't find the mess, because my bag was hiding it. In the end, some vomit found its way onto my bookbag -- not a lot, but some. That afternoon, as our class prepared to board our busses and return home, I retrieved my bag from the shared closet. I placed it vomit-side-down and used it as a toboggan, riding it back to my desk, successfully hiding its shame. The bag was dark blue.

...And then there was the Snoopy incident. We'll tackle that next time.