February 1
I played hooky yesterday, but very good hooky!
1965
T stayed for supper tonight. We went across the track for the Sophomore Talent Show rehearsal and both of us must have great colds now - we had to walk back through the snow. It was called off! Ay-y-y-y-y! Oh, pain! I've got a cough. It's snowing now - I hope we have no school tomorrow. Poof - no school! Oh, well, it won't work! Bye! Bye!
Comment 2006
Since we lived in the largest town (in area) in Connecticut, most of the students at my school rode buses to school. The dozen or so of us who lived next to the school in Sunny Valley Estates (no kidding, that was the real name) were the only walkers. Unfortunately, the only route to the school was through a break in the fence on Sherwood Drive and across the track. When it rained, it was soggy, and when it snowed no one shoveled it. Who shovels a track?
The aerial photo, from the 1965 yearbook, shows my house -- 23 Sherwood Drive -- in the upper right, with the open garage door. The closest entrance to the school was the side door right under the tall smokestack in the lower left.
Comment 2023
Of course, I had to look up my old school to see what it looks like now. It was opened in 1962, to accommodate the influx of baby boom teenagers. In the SIXTY years since then, it has been replaced by a new high school and the old building is now home to an intermediate school (Grades 3-5) named after Sarah Noble, the first (white) female settler of the town. Picture this: she arrived in the area at the age of eight with her father, a trapper, in 1707. He did the hunting while she acted as his housekeeper (!!!!!!) until the rest of the Noble family (mother and six more kids) joined them from Massachusetts.
Well-known children’s book author Alice Dalgliesh won a Newberry Honor Award for her "true story”, The Courage of Sarah Noble” (1954). It’s just the kind of American history that will probably find a warm welcome in certain places these days, with a plucky little Anglo girl making friends with the local Schaghticokes and giving them all nice new Christian names. The Schaghticoke Tribal Nation is still in the area, and has a very fine website.
1993
I think I’m going to love Mondays. So far, I got up at 7:30, got myself dressed, fixed breakfast and lunch for the kids, got them off to school at 8:45 and 8:50. Then I read from 9-10 (In Small Things Forgotten), made cheese sauce for mac and cheese tonight. I am now sitting in a sunny window and having a cup of tea while I write in my journal.
Yesterday Mom and Kiddo 1 and I visited my cousin L and her new baby. Aunt Carol was there, too, so we had some nice finally time. L and B are wonderfully smitten new parents. I remember the feeling, but can’t recapture it, no matter how hard I try. But that’s fine. I am not a wonderfully smitten parent of a 10-year-old and six-year old. And the wonder is that my wonder grows with them. What amazing, interesting, creatures children are!
1996
The semester is lurching to a start. It’s been a frantically busy week, but a very productive one. Everything is moving along, though somethings not as quickly as I’d like. (Book)
The masculinity course was a dismal failure, for a variety of reasons. Bad idea to team-teach with L; within the first few weeks, it was clear that I was never going to be brave enough to stand up to him.
1997
A creative excursion! That sounds like fin. But where? I can think of a dozen possibilities right off the bat. When to do it is a little more complicated, since it’s the first full week of classes. But I will try.
1998
I played hooky yesterday, but very good hooky! In the morning, Kiddo 1 and I went to a rehearsal for the Phil-ins. I wrote new words for a round about 30 minutes before we left. Funny how sometimes it just clicks.
Then I did a few chores around the houses and Jim and I went to Savage Mill to poke around. I tried to find it a few years ago, but didn’t drive far enough. It’s an old textile mill turned into a very bright and spacious antiques mall and craft studio. We didn’t buy much… some bread and coffee at a French bakery, some by leaves, and a knitting spool. But such fun just exploring together.
I remember one snowy morning I was trying to get through that break in the fence on my way to school. There was a snowdrift across the gap that was up to my knees. I fell face down in the deep snow and had to struggle to get back up. When I did there was snow all over my face and hands, snow inside my shoes (who wore boots to school?!!), my gloves and jacket. I made it to the school building and initially was relieved to be inside where I could warm up, and while I was warming the snow inside my clothing melted. I sat there through the morning classes in my own private puddle.