OCR Text |
Show "WASATCH COUNTY COURIER ) August 17, 1999 Lessons aren’t easy when they don’ .: were graded based on our lineage- how much we wrote. I was fine with the writing-I could (and still can) pump out : graders. The art cart, the music cart, | the library cart, they all visited us. with it—attending™ ‘her 9:00 a.m. class, listening to her boring lectures, wiping About the only special privilege we got was a. bathroom that connected our room with the other first grade class who always sounded like they were having the spit off my notebook each time she spit on the plosive “p”. Farr gave me a “C” 3 fun. in her class. Not because. my work was shoddy; Farr was quick to point out that my work was “A” quality. Farr gave me a “C” for attitude. Farr reminded cry, John Dow barf. and Jackie Olsen’ pee her pants, all on the first day of class. It was first grade and I was a little ‘scared. For the six: years of my life preceding my entry into the institution of learning, I was special. I was the baby, the cute little girl in the family who got all the Barbies I wanted, the one who could get away with murder. Life was great. | I entered first grade. Port was huge, with the | moment I ‘stepped into the classroom and watched Mrs. Giavanco turn crimson red, bulge out her eyes and scream she’d dress up like a witch, I’d I'd sit in my seat, as still as my _ six-years I look up see oa pee spe was rushed and was to the nose. and nose The , Giavanco done know my vocabulary that words? I hadn’t Did she And FAMILY DINING FINE DINING how: to- stand up RESTAURANT 654-0805 PIZZA & PASTA CO. 930SouthMain —_—_ Heber City : you, Ernie Farr. How’s that for Losing your mind? We’d like a piece of it. Faxa letter to the editor of The Wasatch County Courier today. 654-2531 (fax). SNELGROVE ICE CREAM 1050 South Main 380 EastMain - 657-0600 = Midway BOOKS & BEYOND 103 East Main — Midway 657-0100 aT INN ON THE CREEK > 375 Rainbow Lane YODELS 79 EAST MAIN Midway _ Midway nk LUGI’S HOUSE OF PIZZA 654-0892 654-5370 380 East Main Midway 657-0100 CRAFTS Midway SAREE 654-5057 280 West 100 South 657-2665 THE TIME TRAVELER 450 South 600 West Heber City 657-1953 EDELWEISS GALLERY 65 East Main Midway 654-1335 _ WATER FROM THE MOON 118 South 500 West Heber City 654-2267 HARVEST HOUSE 159 East Main Midway 657-1440 WILD WOOD ART GALLERY 485 South 250 West- Midway 654-1586 Treasures, Munchie Mansion & More! 650 West 100 South INN ON THE CREEK Midway NECIA’S 654-5889 HEBER OLD TOWN featuring: Old Town Craft Mall, _ Art of the Earth, Hearth & Soil, Grandma's Room, Ye sterday’s LODGING 375 Rainbow Lane Midway FUN STUPF TO DO! 654-3338. 2 DON PEDRO’S MEXICAN RESTAURANT Heber City 128 West 100 North 654-0892 Heber City 654-5601 PINTO PONY DESIGNS 261 South Main Heber City 654-5555 ROCKY MOUNTAIN BASKETS 52 West 100 North Heber City 657-0554 | : ; q| I learned to stick it out, not to Thank Vite 2 nuie-< biel im, nurt. 1. Sales don’t feel good. I think I might fain” ALL THAT STUFF IN THE BARN for ~ attitude? I looked at myself in the mirror. All | got was a little band-aid. Not even FUN STUPF TO DO! the ButI learned run at the first sign of trouble. I learned ~ that not everyone adores me. And | | learned that sometimes it just feels good to tell a peren what you think of her. “You’re done,” said the nurse. Mercurochrome. I got a “C.” how to complain, tions. class next door would take over. All was right in my world. _“T need to see you after school.” the highest level I could go. end result? myself. I learned that it was okay if | didn’t always over-achieve my expecta- was mean and the nice teacher from the attachments. Side Saaeebine out of nothing, made the dull seem moderately interesting, I gave Farr more. I took my grade and my case to the department and then to © the Dean and ultimately appealed it to operate. — I'd be ater apron em siecenia um attachments.” lead, How ~“l need more, »” said Farr. ; And a lousy ~“C” on my unblemished report card. was confusing me. For a moment | forgot I was in hair an exciting did everything I was told and then some, _and for what! : pale me but she the hospital. me_ flowers. up. Mrs. because she Did she Se nurse’s office. Stitches I was all I ge come ‘in with was | to win! “‘Ewww, you're bleeding,” she said. - Mrs. gartner? would -she’d hand it to a paid jour girl told me I and make them spell words like “physi- .- would try to come after couldn’t because I was in cian.” When she’d come to my desk, I’d My class would send look up and all I could see was nose. Someone would speak Nostrils and nose hair flaring in and out _ Giavanco would go away and in and out, like giant vacuum Xx OR ROR OR OR ORIGeN Keer Rowen CIOL WOM C STRATES OCTETS E SEA OLS Then some flaring in and out and in trouble. They would allow me, and and out, like giant vvacu- would have to watch her prowl around the room. She’d pick on students Farr played favorites, of which I wasn’t — one. Farr gave the best stories to other students while I ended up reporting on free kittens and. laundromats.. When | ch meek acercn DON PEDRO’S MEXICAN 42 W. MAIN Midway MEDC there,| would find I didn’t cry, I knew that got you beat up. | was tough. was bleeding. The rest of the day I was terrified. | knew Mrs. Giavanco, was watching me. Do in Merilee’s hair, I was scared. _. Why didn’t she like me? What was nc loved me. I had never actually experienced fear ~ wrong with her? De Did she see me kick that little kinderbefore. | watched my siblings cower at OC CN Piao NON From Then Danny Turner pushed me off the monkey bars. at a Danny Turner to stop putting Play- the fear of spanking, but I was the good kid. Or at least the one smart enough across town. another family to live with and another For Nostrils anything that would single me out. I did everything I was told, rarely questioning anything and never mouthing off to authority, unless it was behind their backs. ThenI took Ernie Farr’s class. ly slither out when no one was looking and run out to the busses and stow away on the one that brought the kids in from coal- and it wasn’ta cos’ cgyld tume. | “Ae Se Then Giavanco earth-shattering the second bell rang then I would slow- In Mrs. Giavanco’s classroom, you Halloween — Mrs. Giavanco was my first introduction to school. .She was mean. She made ‘Becky Wilson Mrs. good, I would hide in a locker until - school to go to and another. = could hear a pin drop. Not that anyone was allowed to drop a pin or anything else, but in theory. . black hair and a long pointed nose. me of Mrs. Giavanco. dare say. kids, sometimes as often as twice a day. We had recess with the second and third words as quickly as anyone. What | didn't like was. the crap that went along would refer to brains as “sponges,” and of something the first few Pirgetory listings $12.50 per week Piscounts fvailablg vas We For twelve more years, and _ of college, I sat in school, bitter that: | was there, sure | was going to get into trouble for something, but scared to do At recessI sat on the monkey bars and planned my escape. I was on the edge school, one that treated first graders as equals. No custom-sized chairs for us; we sat in the big chairs and let our feet dangle. We changed classes like the older | thing called an inverted triangle. Unless I got - out now. I went to first grade in a very progressive write a news article, the ogre who expected me to write stories in some- to be sick,” I said. | Farr was my journalism professor in college, the woman who first forced me to - Giavanco’s first grade class. I’m going But it was no use. Mrs. Giavanco had found me. I was. going back. Py story “I think bad and I would be held back and turn ~ twenty before I graduated from Mrs. || news ‘ wanted to see me about, I was sure it was ane was eo never going write another after I left her stupid class. I Te because 10% ~ 30% Off! Contact The Courier @ 654-2661 for Listings In The Dining & Tourism Directory WIC reproduction Whatever she ROOVOVROROAOT é ais SSE asexual how to wash my hands? “Croasmun.” Mrs. Giavanco knew my name. She learned it after | threw a loaded eraser at Danny Turner’s head. Thwap. She and the principal had my name memorized by the end of the year. I was marked. tally instructed her to experiment with Mrs. Giavanco was standing in the doorway waiting forme. _ watch as I slept through the filmstrip on Shoes not to get caught. ORO ESO OBOE IO OOO OK KEN KOK OOK Sion Reoreen seme nom manne hemes : Ernie Farr told me I’d thank her one day, this following a discussion where I men- ~~ Courier Staff | COC Jean Croasmun, S. from books SHOE IA SSSR come |