Five years in threes. A time line.
Age 3- We just moved from Connecticut to Pennsylvania. I left my amazing, crunchy granola pre-school where my favorite teacher was a bear-like man with a viking-like red beard and transferred into a Jewish preschool around the corner where the teachers were older Main Line yentas. I didn’t like going to school very much and my mom let me stay home a lot. One day I saw my class take a walk past my house. I said, “Mom, it’s my class.” She asked if I wanted to join them. I didn’t so we stayed in and watched through the window.
Age 6- First grade at a private Episcopalian school. I was one of just a few girls in my class and the only kid who could really, truly read. I had my own private reading group with my teacher and was pulled out to see the reading specialist once a week when I tested at an eighth grade level. The reading specialist yelled at me when she assigned me a story in an anthology to read over the week and I read the whole book. Who tells a kid to *stop* reading? This may be why I eventually became a reading specialist.
Age 9- I’m in fourth grade and I don’t particularly like it. I get demerits for wearing pink socks with my uniform. I get high honors the second trimester and the only boy in the grade who got high honors in the first trimester cornered me and told me I didn’t deserve it. I stole it from him. I felt bad because he was crying.
Age 12- We move from one house to another only the new house isn’t ready. We stay at a family friends house in the woods for a few weeks while they’re away. It’s quiet and idyllic except for the green shag carpeting. After they return we stay at my aunt’s house in the city. It’s fun in it’s own way. I like walking around. I find baker’s chocolate and make brownies from scratch for the first time.
Age 15- I am very unhappy because my mother told me my dad didn’t want me around in order to get me to go to boarding school. Further investigation reveals he said no such thing, but the tuition is paid and the damage is done. I dye my hair blue then get a lead role in a play and have to remove the blue and make it blond again.
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