Tag: memories

Snow Day

Last night it snowed about an inch. Thomas and Graham went outside for about an hour before bedtime to have a snowball fight and then build a snowman with their friend Ziad. The temperature was about 35° which made the snow perfect – sticky but still soft.

As I watched them cavort in the snow, I remembered the first time my hands got really, really cold. It was probably the first winter on my paper route and my gloves (or mittens) were horribly inadequate. I came home with very cold fingers and my mom had me put them under running water to thaw them out. I remember screaming that the water was too hot and my mom telling me that it was cold water. After that I always wore a pair of snowmobile mittens over another pair of gloves.

Much to our surprise the snow was still on the ground this morning and school as first delayed and then cancelled altogether. Thomas and Graham were outside for quite awhile before their play devolved into a fight. Graham had to come in and stay in his room and Thomas wasn’t far behind.

I decided to stay home, too. I’m going to try to divert attention away from the Wii this afternoon and toward Pinewood Derby cars. The race is on the 21st and we have not even started!

Zero tolerance

This incident with Graham, much like many other things that happen in my boys’ lives, makes me long for the simplicity of 1970s small-town Iowa.


Graham’s school has a Zero Tolerance policy for fighting, which will go a long way in explaining his suspension. His referral (at left) describes the incident as:

Student on top of Graham. Witnessed Graham slug student in face.

Evidently, Graham and his friend Garett were playing a game that they had made up. Garett became frustrated with the game and tackled Graham somewhat playfully. Graham asked him to get off but he didn’t so Graham punched him somewhat gently. This is when the teacher pulled them apart and sent them to the principal’s office with a referral.

When Tina received the call from the principal Graham was sobbing uncontrollably. He was afraid of getting in further trouble and ashamed of what had happened. Because of the zero tolerance policy, the principal had no choice but to suspend Graham and Garett from school. She showed a little bit of mercy by suspending them only for the next morning.

The whole incident reminded me of something that happened to me when I was in fifth or sixth grade. My sometime best friend, Gretchen Eastman, had undergone a growth spurt that made her bigger than most of her peers. Kids are cruel and we were no exception as we continually taunted her by calling her “Grape Ape”. Eventually, she grew tired of the name-calling but I was slow to pick up on that fact. One day on the playground she simply decided that she had had enough. When I continued calling her “Grape Ape,” she reared back and decked me right in the face. I don’t recall if I fought back, but I do recall both of us being sent to the principal’s office for the “fight”.

I remember sobbing uncontrollably myself both at the prospect of having been sent to the principal’s office and by the fact that I had my clock cleaned by a girl. It’s hard to say which was more humiliating, but I can tell you that my visits to the principal’s office were rare by that time. I remember that my hands and arms felt very wet from all the tears. I’m not sure what the end result of the fight was, but I’m quite sure that I was not suspended. Our principal (and neighbor), Mr. Harnack, had mercy on us and probably felt that I had undergone punishment enough.

This incident with Graham, much like many other things that happen in my boys’ lives, makes me long for the simplicity of 1970s small-town Iowa.

First election, last election

I still remember the first time I voted. Voting in Riceville was always at City Hall, where there were probably two or three booths. The helpful election volunteer explained the whole process and what I needed to do. There were levers, I remember, and there were two big levers. One you could pull to vote all-Democrat and the other you could pull to vote all-Republican. At the time, I thought that was handy but something I would never use. I scrupulously considered all my options for each race and voted according to my conscience. Something I have done in every election since.

But yesterday was different. Yesterday it seemed like there was a message to be sent and the only way for the intended recipients to hear it would be a massive Democratic victory. So I voted Democrat in every single race that had a Democrat running. Now the message has been sent. Will it be heard and heeded?

How was the message sent? Let me count the ways:

  1. Democrats will now control the U.S. House of Representatives
  2. Democrats are guaranteed at least a tie in the United States Senate, with a very good chance of taking control (depending on how the recount goes in Virginia)
  3. Donald Rumsfeld resigned
  4. Rick Santorum lost
  5. Ted Kennedy won
  6. Democrat Ted Kulongoski won a second term as Oregon governor despite heavy negative campaigning by his opponent in the waning days of the election
  7. 28 states now have Democratic governors
  8. Four out of five U.S. House seats up for election in Oregon went to Democrats
  9. Democrats prevail in 10 of 14 Oregon Senate races and retain control
  10. Democrats win 24 of the 42 available seats and gain control of the Oregon House
  11. Oregon turnout is expected to reach 71 percent when all votes are counted
  12. All but one of the state-wide ballot measures went the way I voted
  13. No local ballot measure I voted against won

There were a few downsides:

  1. Joe Lieberman won his Senate race. Can his vote be counted on?
  2. Same-sex marriage bans were approved in six more states. Either people don’t understand the whole freedom concept, or I’m missing something.
  3. Hillary Clinton won by a large margin possibly encouraging her to run for President in 2008
  4. Harold Ford lost his Senate race in Tennessee but did you see his concession speech? Wow!