2nd GRADE---Little Monsters in the making

2nd Grade--Age 7--Little Monsters In The Making ____________________________________

HOW COME SCHOOL HAS TO GET HARDER AND HARDER EVERY YEAR...!!!

I think that was the battle cry cry from all of us...every year...

Why couldn't we say something like it was our quest for knowledge that catapulted us forward...

Huh...???...This was Tommy More...Let's be realistic...

At age 7...we'd be all ditching every day...if we knew how...And the fact that my lunch box always consisted of either a boiled ham sandwich or P.B.J. sandwich and two measely oreo cookies didn't exactly make me look forward to our lunch break at any given time...either...

Though...now...looking back...2nd Grade was a no-brainer...we simply added a few things that boggled our minds...First off, we had to learn how to write our names, not print our names anymore. This truly was a bummer...And to add insult to injury...we were instructed to go up to the chalkboard and write our names...so everyone could see...

This was pretty scary stuff...because most of us never saw it coming...Suddenly, a chalk stick was thrust into our hand and we were nudged up to the front of everyone...where we became the runaway train wreck about to embarrass ourselves like never before...Sure, almost all of the girls got up there and made a few graceful strokes...but the boys...they were grinding the chalk...into the chalkboard, making screeching noises and an incoherent mess...At least I fell into this notorious category...I was pretty bad back then...and even today...I still print everything I can...at all times...

The only cool thing about using the chalkboard so much everyday is that at the end of the day, several boys were chosen to go outside with the chalk erasers and clap them together until all the chalk dust was gone...

We'd go off into this outdoor area called the breezeway all by ourselves and we'd have a ball, throwing the erasers at each other, deliberately striking a giant chalk mark on each other's school clothes...We'd be hacking and coughing the whole time because there was a ton of chalk dust coming out of those erasers...

After about 5 to 10 minutes...we'd come back into class...as innocent as can be...except for the giant white chalk stains...embedded into our clothes...which was pretty easy to notice...and got a few chuckles...

I remember this special year in 2nd Grade was my first class year with life-long friends...Slim(Pat Farrell)...and Eddie Bar(Eddie Barkowski)...They both had buzz cuts and buck teeth. And they pretty much acted like The Bruiser and The Crusher...Well, maybe not all the time. But their school photos that year are priceless...By the way, my photo was equally absurd as I was sporting the giant sloth look with one extra long tooth, hanging down, and wearing a burnt orange sport coat, which made me look like some bizarre little mobster....

It also didn't help that I had this funky, looks-like-a-dog-bit-off-half-my-right-ear, going for me, too. Somebody quick, call Junior GQ!!! Ah yes...We were all quite the sight to behold...Don't worry...Our looks would rapidly change...And it really wouldn't be long for our full potential as all-out party animals to come forward a few more years down the line...

I think the way coolest thing about the 2nd Grade was the location of our classroom. It was ROOM #8...and it was on the ground floor and it looked out onto the wide expanse of the church parking lot which was also our recess area too...You could peer out at all the older school kids, running wild, having a ball. You could really feel the palpitating energy and excitement, with all of the laughing and shouting and screaming from outside, even though, our teacher, Sister Peter Thomas, tried to keep our attention away from the windows...as much as possible...

I remember my brother Danny said he had his 2nd Grade class in Room #8 five years before...and once they had a fire drill in that same classroom...and he and his buddies jumped out of the windows very quickly and very easily and ran out into the parking lot as the siren rang in the background. They...no doubt...got into big trouble for that...

One funny aspect to 2nd Grade was our advancements into the creative arts world using scissors, colorful construction paper and glue...I think we all set out to use our scissors to cut out the perfect figure, then glue that onto another piece of construction paper. We did have good intentions but the results often ended up looking less than spectacular...As a matter of fact...I think if we saw some of those creations today...we'd wonder what kinda glue were we sniffing that day...

I gotta admit...I was totally, totally into ELMER'S GLUE...It was white...it was sticky...and it even smelled good enough to eat...I would pour a giant glob of Elmer's Glue onto the palms of my hands...spread it around....wait for it to dry...and then peel it off like it was dead skin...It was an extremely unusual fascination, but hey, I was Age 7, and pretty much everything was fascinating at that point in time...to me...

2nd Grade opened up new avenues of friendships with so many girls and boys whose faces I can still recall, vividly...There were just so many kids who were so much like me...We were small but we were catching on so fast to the ways of the world...Most of us still were not allowed too far off of our block we lived on...to play...with all our fun school chums...so hanging out together would have to wait...Yet there was an undeniable bond that would grow stronger & stronger as our years at Saint Thomas More flew by...