When I was in 6th grade...

[LeftyFingerPop]

I was in a play that was held in front of the entire school. We were a bunch of pilgrims. We got to dress up in these cool pilgrim outfits that included long white knee socks and pilgrim hats.

All the boys were in the boy's room changing into their costumes. Just as I was putting my cool hat on, Donald (the school tough guy voted the student most likely to die in prison) walked up to me and sucker punched me in the eye.

I didn't see it coming...last thing I remember was a flash of bright light, and I blacked out momentarily.

They picked me up and I shook it off and did the play with a swollen eye.

The end.

[Arugula Latte]

1. Sounds like you got Squantoed.

But the show must go on.

[LeftyFingerPop]

2. To this day, I remember my lines....

For the wealth of the snowy cotton fields
For the gift of the sugar cane
For the savory herbs
And the nourishing roots
There has been nothing given in vain
Look what you did to my eye you motherfucker

[Arugula Latte]

3. I believe that is the standard pageant wording for elementary school.

Your parents must have been proud.

[Deja Q]

4. In 6th grade:

* people mocked my speech impediment
* at a roller skating school-sponsored event, some kid punched me in the eye because he thought I said something about his girlfriend (a loner back then, I never talked to anybody, so I don't know what I would have said because I never said anything. So WTF.)
* sexually assaulted in a church by a girl, who with two friends had been making unwanted advances - whether or not it was some sort of a joke or not, but I do know the one who assaulted me finally found someone willing and 9 months after that gave birth to Calvin James (surname). Oh, hers is a name I will never forget. Like the incidents.
* Constantly bullied

I could go on but I need to restrain my memories.

And yet I was the one kept in isolated teaching. It's the best they could do. I was a magnet for filth and there was plenty. Pity the filth weren't expelled; it wouldn't have changed their lives anyway.

Just think of what happened in kindergarten, 3rd grade, 7th grade, 9th grade, 10th grade, 11th grade... I've done damn well in life and I intend to do well. They will not win and knowing they are losers is more than enough.

Every accomplishment I've done in life is 95% due to myself and 5% for my parents doing their best to fight a school system ran by incompetent shitheads. Funny how I've put out more vitriol against them than the other students, which I will not identify as "peers". Oh, I've got plenty of memories of how things were ran and how worse things have gotten in what used to be a middle class school district. (now it's just a large crib with metal detectors and for "crib" I mean the thing a baby sleeps in and not the colloquialism for an adult's domicile.)

Glad to see you posting. I recall a couple you'd made in the lounge and I'd gotten worried.

[nomorenomore08]

7. Second through fifth grade were my worst bullying years, by far.

I did have a few friends, as in kids I hung around with, went to their houses to play video games, etc., but often they themselves would participate in the teasing. Just bad times all around, though I didn't have it as bad as you did.

It really does shape a person for life, doesn't it, that sort of thing? A kind of negative reinforcement, training for adult roles...

[TheCentepedeShoes]

5. To add

When I was in 6th grade ('59-'60)

My teacher had to leave mid-year because she was preggers and showing.

I discovered that after school the thing to watch on the teevee was American Bandstand, not cartoons.
I started watching AB also, but felt like Mommie Dearest wouldn't like it so I switched to Bugs and Co when she drove up. Yep, I was right, she caught me. I must have been in the bathroom dealing with that other growing up girl thing she didn't know about and wasn't happy about when she found out.

I hid in the girl's restroom after a boy kissed me. He's currently in prison for murder.

[nomorenomore08]

6. "I hid in the girl's restroom after a boy kissed me. He's currently in prison for murder."

NOW do you see the need for zero-tolerance behavioral policies??? :rofl:

[Blue Diadem]

8. When I was in 4th grade,

I also was to be in a program in front of the entire school. I don't remember what we sang, only that we all had to wear white blouses/shirts and blue skirts/pants. That day during recess, the girls and I were playing 4 square and our ball rolled away. I went to get it and there stood a 6th grader named Bobby, holding the ball and laughing. He offered it to me, I reached for it, he pulled it back and laughed. Over and over he did that, finally I was fast enough to grab the ball and just as fast, he punched me in the eye.

I sang my parts that night in front of everyone with my big swollen black eye too.

[Kutjara]

9. I briefly got to be Miles Standish in my 5th Grade T'Giving play.

I still remember the part where I got to "welcome" the Indians to America. Even to my 10 year old brain, that didn't seem quite right, so I asked my teacher, "Shouldn't the Indians be welcoming us? They were here first." I was instantly demoted to "random Pilgrim," a non-speaking part. My political education started right there.

[driver8]

10. In 6th grade, I was playing third base and our shortstop threw the ball to me

when I wasn't looking.

It hit me right under the left eye and the next thing I know, I'm sitting in the dugout.

I had quite a shiner after that.