The Random Comic Strip

The Random Comic Strip

Words to live by...

"How beautiful it is to do nothing, and to rest afterward."

[Spanish Proverb]

Ius luxuriae publice datum est

(The right to looseness has been officially given)

"Everyone carries a part of society on his shoulders," wrote Ludwig von Mises, "no one is relieved of his share of responsibility by others. And no one can find a safe way for himself if society is sweeping towards destruction. Therefore everyone, in his own interest, must thrust himself vigorously into the intellectual battle."

Apparently, the crossword puzzle that disappeared from the blog, came back.


Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Snippet of Life - The Sixth Grade

I think the sixth grade was the second major turning point in my life. Moving to Florida was important and probably laid the foundation for my feeling that I lack a home town but events in 1957 changed more than just me. But sixth grade was important because certain events converged.

I went to a brand new school that year, Greynolds Park Elementary, one built to serve our particular area (known as North Miami Beach). It had just been finished during the summer and was an airy, friendly looking building. I looked for pictures of it but there seems to be none. There were no hallways in the classic sense. All classes opened onto covered walkways. All classes had windows opening out to the open fields. The windows opened, really, because there was no air conditioning. When it got hot (most of the time in south Florida), the classroom door was opened and the windows were opened. As I recall, this was pretty much all the time. It was more unusual to have them closed.

Schools today look more like prisons to me. More like this picture.







Sputnik was launched in October of 1957 and that really shook up the country. How could the Soviets have jumped ahead of us? The Space Race was on! Mr. Moltane, my 6th grade teacher, was almost obsessed about this. He wanted us all to get involved in science, to consider careers in engineering. He was a short, stocky man, balding and gruff looking. He was passionate about science so he emphasized math. Since that was a subject I enjoyed, I did fairly well.

It was an interesting year for me. I got involved in the Audio Visual group. These were students who ran the old 16 MM film projectors, nothing more. But I got to watch a lot of those old Bell System educational films. Very simplistic explanations of atomic energy, rockets, even computers. But they did give me something of an understanding of these things, something which helps me even today. Maybe that's where I picked up the habit of breaking things down into simple representations to understand them.

I worked in the cafeteria for a half hour each day, mostly running racks of dishes, silverware, and glasses through the dishwasher. I also worked a half hour each day in the principal's office which consisted of mostly sitting around or running notes to teachers. I read more than anything as an office assistant, anything available.

I was a "good boy" then. I got good grades, I paid attention. I participated.

When you're 11 years old, you start experimenting with life. Maybe looking for role models, or new ones to replace ones that seemed outdated or silly. The late 50s was a time when juvenile delinquents were on a lot of people's minds. Rebel Without A Cause, which came out in 1955, had sparked a lot of interest in the subject and it was becoming a great concern. Being "cool" became important.

That's when things started to change for me. I didn't want to be "square" (as nerds were called then). I was already reading books by Kerouac and Ginsberg, delving into the Beat Generation. I also read a lot novels and accounts of juvenile delinquency and street gangs of that period. I was curious about many things and knew I couldn't experience them all myself but I wanted to try.

I started getting into a little trouble at school. We used to make "match guns". These were simple devices. You took an old wooden thread spool, a piece of elastic, put them together and fired kitchen matches from them. Of course, we fired them at each other half the time. One day, I got caught at school with a pocket full of kitchen matches and that was the end of my "good boy" days.

I blame it all on having an older brother. Since he was two years older, I looked up to him. We didn't get along, though, never had. Still, whatever he did, I wanted to do. Because he was "cool".That meant BB gun fights, smoking cigarettes, and just being a juvenile delinquent in training.

My best friends were all about the same things. Pat, Marty, Mike, Steve, "The Ger" (Harold was his name but he hated it), and I began hanging around together which meant nothing but trouble. We weren't bad kids, really, just bored and curious. And adventurous.

Sixth grade was really just the beginning. It would be in junior high that we began building reputations.

9 comments:

Michael said...

You remember all that from primary 6? I hardly remember anything from junior high, so I am impressed. The sixth grade sounds like it was a nice and happy time for you, learning while having fun. That's what it's all about. Very nostalgic.

I have a question. Did/Could you ever imagine that you would lead the life you led and currently lead? Did you ever picture anything that even comes close?

Michael.

Douglas said...

Michael - Never in my wildest nightmares could I have imagined what was in store for me over the years between 12 and 24. Nor could I have envisioned what has happened since then. Probably because I never thought about it. There is an old cartoon strip, Shoe, which had one where Cosmo says the following:
"High intelligence has always run in my family. Ambition, however, always walked with a limp." That pretty much sums me up.

Michael said...

C'est intéressant.

On a totally separate subject, my friend has asked me about a quotation she forgot. Her science teacher once quoted a famous scientist's words that run along the lines of: "Science is done." or "We have discovered everything there is to know about the world."

According to her, Einstein then came along and debunked that quotation. Do you know of the quotation?

If you don't, I will tell her it doesn't exist and she will believe so.

Michael.

Douglas said...

Michael - Why am I doing your research for you? A quick search found nothing to support her. Digging into my own memory banks, I found something nestled that might have been related. There's a story about some at the US patent office claiming everything had been invented. This allegedly happened in the mid 1800s. Here's a link to a debunking of that myth.

http://inventors.about.com/library/lessons/bl_appendix5.htm

My going rate for researching pointless trivia is $75 per hour.

Anonymous said...

Douglas, you are normal after all!

Match guns (we used to dehead pins and stick them into the matches - added a pain value), smoking (actually tried that in third grade) BB guns, great fun! I did not get on with my brother either, although he was the younger, we still don't see eye-to-eye about life 50 years on.

I never actually reasoned before, but you are right - squares became nerds...

But generally you are right - 6th grade was the beginning of life.

AV
http://netherregionoftheearthii.blogspot.com/
http://tomusarcanum.blogspot.com/
http://thingsthatfizz.blogspot.com/

Douglas said...

AV - And none of us, no matter how hard we tried, ever put anyone's eye out with a BB gun, either.

Anonymous said...

Exactly Douglas... what has happened to the world?

AV
http://netherregionoftheearthii.blogspot.com/
http://tomusarcanum.blogspot.com/
http://thingsthatfizz.blogspot.com/

Michael said...

Thanks, anyway, Douglas. You have heard far more than I have and I wondered if you might have heard it. It's been two days since I asked you and my friend no longer needs it. Meh.

Michael.

Douglas said...

Michael - Yes, meh. I, of course, answered within 3 hours of your comment. Timely, I believe.