This is the 4th post in a 12 week series joining Mommy’s Piggy Tales to record my youth!

1986-1987
2nd Grade

Mrs. Murray was my 2nd grade teacher. She was tall, thin, and blonde. She was a really nice teacher. When I got to the high school she was our Bible Club sponsor. I think she retired a few years after I graduated.

An Apple for Teacher
2nd Grade was a year of many new things for me. Our classroom was the first to get a computer. I remember it being a big deal and I think we took a whole day off just to use the computer. We each had to pick a few graphics and write a sentence about them. Here is my work…aren’t those graphics just awesome 😉

Holes in my head

It was during 2nd grade when I was 8 years old that I got my ears pierced. I was so excited about getting my ears pierced and becoming more grown up. I don’t think we did anything special that day, but I do remember that I had my ears pierced at the pediatrician’s office. It didn’t hurt but the gun made a really loud popping sound. I took really good care of my ears and never had trouble with them. Around the time I graduated my piercings began to bother me. When I would put earrings in my ears would turn red, the holes would swell and eventually puss (yummy!). I tried every different kind of post imaginable but nothing helped. In fact, they just kept getting worse as I got older. Eventually I quit wearing earrings all together and now the holes have almost entirely shut.
Here’s my 2nd grade school picture where you can see my pierced ears.
Warning: This is the worst school picture that I’ve ever taken.
I hope that you can get some enjoyment out of it.

I had a bad cold and my chapped lips pretty much became chapped mouth and chapped chin. On a happy note, that’s one of my all time favorite dresses that I’m wearing. You can’t see it in the picture (:() but at the bottom of the dress was a squirrel raking leaves. I thought it was so cute; I was so disappointed when I grew out of it.

4-Eyes!

Another new thing that happened that year was my sister and I getting eye glasses. I actually kinda wanted glasses and I’m not sure why. Now I really wish I never had to get them! My sister and I are nearsighted so we couldn’t see the blackboard far away. We were supposed to only wear our glasses when we had to look far away and keep them off the rest of the time. This proved to be very inconvenient with the constant on/off…so we usually just wore them all of the time. I’m not sure whether or not that’s what made our eyes worse, but it didn’t take long before my sister and I had to wear our glasses all of the time. They continued to get steadily worse. Forget nearsighted. Now I can only see an inch in front of my face without glasses/contacts. I don’t know if bad eyes are hereditary but our parents didn’t wear glasses and our grandparents only wore reading glasses. The only other relative we had with eyes as bad as ours was our Aunt (you can see a photo of her awesome 80s specs here).
I had a hard time finding a picture of us wearing glasses 1986/87 because we usually took them off for photos. After a year or so, we left them on for pictures. Here’s what I do have from ‘87.

The Bossy Little Traffic Cop

I wasn’t your normal kid. I didn’t play a lot. Sure, I was creative and imaginative and I like to play pretend. Other than that, I didn’t have much interest in toys or games and I didn’t care to play outside. One day all of the neighborhood kids were outside playing. There were at least 3 or 4 of them plus my sister and me. There were kids on bikes and skates. There were kids running back and forth across the street. It was chaos ;)! I went inside and put on my Care Bear roller skates and a whistle. I then proceeded to go outside and direct traffic. I blew my whistle and put out my hand. I told kids when they could stop, when they could go, and how fast they could go. And you know what? Those crazy kids listened to me. I guess I’m just a born leader. It’s a good thing that I learned to use my superpowers for good instead of evil. It took time, though, it took time 😉

*Photo credit link at the bottom of this post*

It’s not personal, it’s business

One day all of the neighborhood kids were playing outside and saying how hungry and thirsty they were getting, but didn’t want to go outside. Because of children’s habits of constantly running in out of the house for drinks, moms often made a “once you’re in, you’re in” rule. Being the conniving compassionate little girl that I was I came up with a greedy brilliant scheme idea. I went inside the house and came back out with: a shoebox, Dixie cups, a box of graham crackers, and a container of apple juice. I set up a table on the front porch and then charged each child $1 for a Dixie cup of apple juice and a square of graham cracker. Later in the day my mom saw me counting a box of money. She asked me where I got it and I told her. I was so proud of myself. I think I made $10. My mom told me that it wasn’t right to take their money. She walked me around to all of the houses and had me apologize and return the money (which was totally not fair since they didn’t return the crackers or apple juice!). I don’t think I ever tried to start another business after that. Pity. I could’ve been bigger than Trump 😉

*I found the photo of the Vintage 1983 Care Bear Roller Skates here

You can read about my 7th birthday here:
Jenn’s 7th Birthday Party 1986.

My Piggy Tales:
*My Birth Story: I’m always late!
*Ages 3-5: Dancing in a box
*Age 6 First Grade: There’s a bra in my lunchbox!
*Age 7 Second Grade: Bossy Wheels and Shady Deals
*Age 8 Third Grade: I will not talk in class
*Age 9 Fourth Grade: I didn’t really need those fingers anyway!
*Age 10 5th Grade: Nothing’s Scary in the Fifth Grade
*Age 11 6th Grade: Jenny Got Ran Over by her Grandma
*Age 12 7th Grade: Youth Camp Stinks
*Age 13 8th Grade: “Talent” Show
*Age 14 9th Grade: (N)O Christmas Tree
*Age 15 10th Grade: The Newsboys Wouldn’t Ditch Their Friends
*Age 16 11th Grade: Acrophobia Gets You the Good Seats
*Age 17 12th Grade: In School Suspension

My Young Adult Years
*Dreams and Aspirations: The Long Road There
*Friends and Fellowship: Friends Don’t Get Friends Grounded
*My First Job
*How I Met Cool Daddy Part 1
*How I Met Cool Daddy Part 2
*Colonel Mustard on a Rollercoaster with a Plastic Fork

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