Mommy's Piggy Tales: 6th Grade

6th Grade...honestly, every time I sit down to write one of these "chapters," I think, "I'm going to keep it really short this time." It ends up being so difficult to abbreviate. Believe it or not, these are the abbreviated versions of my years. I fear it will only get worse as the timeline progresses, and my memories increase.

I did not get the teacher I wanted for 6th grade. (Again, I'm sure she's a lovely person. These are just my 11 year old thoughts.) She was very strict, and we thought she was "mean." (Update: this is what I found I'd written in my diary: She's okay, I guess. She things of good projects to do. But if you do something bad, she'll make you feel really low and embarrassed...She even bawled Sarah out the other day for no reason, which surprised everyone.) I do remember, though, that she had a lot of fun ideas. And I usually completed my assignment first so she, like all of my other teachers, let me write reports, etc. for extra credit.

This was Mrs. B's discipline policy. If we broke a rule at all, she would look at us fiercely and say, "Do you want a verbal warning?" If we got a verbal warning, we missed out on the cooking project at the end of the week. It was really a great system, I admit. It was just scary! We did not want her to give us that look and use that voice, and the cooking projects were so fun! We got to make things like pudding and English muffin pizzas, etc.

I think I only got a verbal warning once. Erin didn't have her spelling words finished before recess. I gave her my spelling words I'd already finished for the next day. The plan was for her to hand it in with her name on it, then do her own and replace it later before Mrs. B saw it. Well, she saw it, recognized my handwriting, gave us both verbal warnings, and made us both do more spelling words. I loved Erin dearly, but I think she probably "helped" get me into trouble more than once.

Oh, yeah! Mrs. B also made us hold our pencil "the right way." If she caught us holding it incorrectly, she would say, “If I see you holding your pencil wrong again, you’re getting a verbal warning!” I know she meant well, but as soon as the year was over, I went back to holding it the way I had always held it and have ever since.

The top picture of me was taken on the first day of 6th grade. Our pictures went into our "time capsule," along with these index cards we filled out.

I devoured books. These are the names of the books I read just during the summer before 6th grade. (The list also continues on the back!) My mom took us every week to the Republic Library.

I'm not sure if the Unicorn Club started in the 5th or 6th grade. I was obsessed with unicorns and had a whole unicorn "collection," consisting of figurines, music boxes, posters, etc.

The club actually started as the G.I.L.W.B. Club. Any ideas as to what that stands for? "Girls In Love With Boys." I didn't think of the name; I'm sure Erin did. We had sleepovers and meetings at recess, and apparently "every 5th day in a month," we selected new officers. :) It was serious business. We continued to do a lot of toilet papering houses, snipe hunting, and prank calling. We also watched a lot of horror movies - yikes - but not at my house! I remember watching Rags to Riches (I loved that show!) at Tammy's house. We all agreed to be Chris J.'s joint "secret admirer," and we inundated him with attention.

I had my first (Unicorn Club) sleepover at my house! My sister Cary wrote a note and slid it under my bedroom door. It said something like, "If you need anything, I can be your maid!" That makes me smile so much.

We also had a gigantic crush on Chad, an 8th grader, who recently moved to our town. His parents bought a local mercantile, and looking back on it, I wonder was he even cute? But we were convinced he was, and at recess, we would sit as close to the junior high doors as we were allowed so that we could smile at him when he walked outside to the next building. Then we'd also stand and wait for him to come out of the building after school. We sometimes called him and asked him who he liked. He was tall and had longer, wavier hair than most of the boys. I wrote in my diary that I was so mad at him because on the phone and at the mercantile he would talk to me and joke around, but at school he ignored me because I was only in the 6th grade.

Uh...yeah...authentic 1987...

Sunday Night Dedications on the radio station Rock 99 were a big deal at the time. I always listened to them in my room and had a blank tape in my sterio, ready to push the record button whenever a good song came on. And it was fun to listen for any names we recognized. (Ryan B. dedicated Next Time I Fall in Love by Peter Cetera to me in the 4th grade.) Well, once when I was in junior high, there happened to be a dedication from "Jenny to Chad in Crane" - Should've Known Better by Richard Marx. Everyone assumed I did it for Chad, but I promise I didn't. I even went up to him in the hall and said, "That dedication wasn't from me." He totally smirked and said, "Right..." I was so embarrassed.

I was, once again, on a basketball team in the 6th grade. This was us after we won 2nd place at the Galena Tournament. We were actually pretty good. I'm the last one on the front row. I wore the smooth stone necklace from my Granny's house every game underneath my shirt. It was the only sort of good-luck charm I ever had.

Deanna, Me, Erin, and Tammy

We took a field trip at the end of the year to the skating ring in Springfield. The girls had the DJ dedicate Bon Jovi's You Give Love a Bad Name to the "6th grade boys from the 6th grade girls."