Grade 3

I loved my 3^rd grade teacher. I was in Mrs. Atwood’s class and the cool thing about her room was there was a door that went outside off the back of the class. The lockers lined up on the wall perpendicular to the door. When you went out that door, it took you directly to the front playground. Now that we were “big kids”, we got to go to the front playground where all of the really cool swings, slides and monkey bars were. You know, all the things that are outlawed on playgrounds now?

The slides were metal and would burn your leg on your way down on a hot day. Kids either stayed off the slide on those days or we just made sure to stay in the middle. I was one of those (I suppose I still am) that was always up for a challenge. I paid the price of course. I got a nice long red mark all the way down the left side of my leg. Yep! It hurt like crazy, but I was ok. My teacher took me to the office and I got some ointment and went back to class. No one called my mother, no one got sued and the world went right on spinning. My mother saw it when I got home and asked me what happened. I told her and her response was, “Why in the world would you get on a hot slide?” I shrugged my shoulders and just told her I wanted to because no one else would. She also put some ointment on it and said to stay off of it on hot days. I said I would and that was that. I didn’t have any blisters or open wounds and it healed just find. Lesson learned.

Sometimes, my friends and I would run directly to the swings and stay on them the entire time we were at recess. We would swing as high as we could to see who could touch the tree limbs first. It varied depending on who got to swinging first. But we would also sing “Joy to the World” by Three Dog Night to the top of our lungs! I knew every verse (and I still do) and taught my friends. It is one of my fondest memories of third grade.

In my life at home, things were just as weird. My mother had a new boyfriend and I never liked him. They got married in the summer after 3^rd grade in Atlanta, GA (or so we were told) Enter, new (step) brother and sister. We had all gone to Six Flags near there for a “family vacation” while my mother worked at the retail market buying clothing for the boutique where she worked. She eventually opened her own store.

Are you keeping count??? That would be husband #3 and I am only 9 years old at this point! 🤦‍♀️