Chapter 2 - Starting School

John begins school.

Chapter 2 �" Starting School

 

John started school at the age of five and went right into kindergarten. The first school he attended was a small school in his neighborhood, though it was not close enough to walk to. He would be dropped off each morning by a variety of people and a variety of cars and rarely on time. John developed a phobia of being late at an early age because of this. In this school, John spent most of his time on a round multicolored carpet. It seemed like he spent his day on this carpet, every day on this carpet. There was story time, nap time, snack time, morning attendance time, and afternoon dismissal time and for every event they were on the carpet, on the carpet, on the carpet. While he enjoyed the class and being away from home he came to dislike the carpet.  

In the middle of the year a life changing event happened that was expected by everyone but the children. The parents got a divorce. Of course, it was not amicable at all. The parents fought but now it was through the lawyers.  The father had an advantage over the mother here, he had more money and evidently more experience with the legal system and he won custody of John and the sister. The brother stayed with the mother since this was not the natural born son of John’s father. The father, sister, and John stayed in the house temporarily while the court worked through the process of finalizing everything. From there, the father got a home in a middleclass neighborhood in walking distance to an awarded elementary school, with the grandmother. The grandmother took the master bedroom and the father and grandkids got the other three rooms. This was a matter of convenience for both the father and the grandmother. She wanted the mother out of the kids’ lives and she got it but in doing so she increased her level of responsibilities with the kids. It would be easier to live with them to help take care of them.

The house itself was nice as it was newer construction. The community was young and full of families and kids. With 14 homes on the street, half of them had kids in the school system here and half of those were at the school at the top of the street. The school was located at the top of the street where it ended which was uphill from the father’s (actually the grandmother’s) home. This made it more difficult to ride a bike to school but made it very easy to ride a bike home.  The homes in the neighborhood were all similar in style but none had the same floor plan, they were all slightly different. John’s home was a two story home with the bottom half encased in brick and the top half vertical wood planks in an olive green color. Not the best color, but at least it was not pink John used to say. The back yard was fenced and behind the fence was a storm water gully. When it rains the water rushes by so fast that it would wash anyone standing in it away. The gully was deep, at least four feet and in cases five and it was easily four feet across in most areas and in some areas it was over five feet wide. The back of the home had several trees and a large back deck while the front of the house had quarter acre flat yard with a full and thick fescue grass lawn. Perfect for diving for the football as it made for a semi soft landing.

John started his new school midway through the school year and he fit right in. John had not turned six yet but his birthday was right around the corner.  He was scared the first day but mostly because of the rug on the floor. It was round and multi-colored and the first morning he had to sit on a blue square on the edge of the rug. He was mortified at that as well the fact that the teacher wanted him to talk to the class. John didn’t say anything, he was too shy. It got better though. They spent hardly anytime on the carpet and for nap time they had special mats to pull out so he didn’t have to sleep on the carpet. He was happy, it’s the little things sometimes that can bring the most joy. The first year went by quickly for John. He had full days at school and he was still exploring his new home and yard. In the last home he could not go into the backyard because the grass was taller than he was and he would end up lost but in the new home things were different.

The father had to agree to stop drinking to get custody of the John and his sister as well as the home with the grandmother. Instead of the father going out drinking every night he went to AA meetings every night. So while the father was getting healthier and more responsible the kids still rarely saw him and he was almost like a stranger to them during the week. The grandmother however, was ever present. At first it was great. A hot breakfast before school every morning, a homemade lunch, and a warm home cooked meal every night with a TALL glass of milk to boot. Things settled into a routine and life was finally starting to go from bad to ok for John and his sister. The problems started over the summer as the kids grew more comfortable with their surroundings and ventured through the neighborhood to meet the other kids.

The grandmother was a very controlling woman and ran the house with a firm hand. She expected rooms to be cleaned every day, beds to be made every morning, and baths to be taken daily. The grandmother had specific house work tasks that she completed each day and these tasks repeated on a weekly basis. This is how the house stayed guest ready all the time. John thought this was an odd way to live when guest seldom visited the house and when they did it was normally extended family members of the dad or the grandmother. There was even a room to receive these guests in that was never used by John or his sister as they were not allowed inside of this room. This room was full of nice white furniture, a record player, and white shag carpet. The grandmother was afraid that the kids would stain the carpet or the furniture so she kept them out. This was probably a really, really smart move on her part. John knew how to get dirty and how to bring that into the house. 

As John turned seven he continued to grow in his new home and grew more comfortable exploring the neighborhood he met two kids on his street who would be his childhood friends until he moved. Both of these kids went to different private schools so the only time John saw them was after school or the weekends. All three kids were mostly well behaved and all had completely different family structures. Greg's family was typical of the time with married parents, two kids (boy and girl), and a dog, a poodle that loved to bite John every chance it had. Thad's family was a little different in that Thad’s sister was a special needs girl. The girl was really nasty in that she would say whatever came to her mind and since they allowed her to sit in front of the TV all day and watch whatever she wanted (Thad too) she knew lots of nasty things to say. This meant that John of Greg were rarely invited inside. Though to be honest the kid rarely spent anytime inside any of the others home. If it was raining the kids just wouldn’t get together that day.  

John enjoyed several years of a fairly good life. From the ages of 7 to 10 he was fairly stable and secure with his day to day life.  He was happy and relatively comfortable at this point in his life.  He had an opportunity to be in the boy scouts and go on camping trips, he was able to play soccer, baseball, and basketball all of which he was good at, maybe not the best but certainly not the worst. He never had to sit on the bench on any team he played for. He was always a starter. He played with his friends almost every day, unless it was raining or he was grounded. He went to school and earned middle of the road grades and kept his room cleaned. His father was still absent more than he was home and more and more the grandmother held more sway over him than his father did.  

While John was adapting to the new home life and the new school he was still very awkward in any kind of social setting with kids. He would do well around adults because he knew how to talk to them but he had no idea how to talk to kids his own age. He would stutter and stumble getting words out which made him just not want to talk to any kids at all. This caused John a lot of pain and heartache during his elementary school years. The biggest problem was his inability to speak in front of groups. Anything over three people and John would shut down. When he did talk it was quiet and half the time didn’t make sense because the words would not come out in the right order. With the teachers John could communicate easily and they always gave positive feedback to the parents (except for his English teacher who was always disappoint with John’s grade and his efforts) so they were never aware of his troubles socially in school.

John did manage to have a “girlfriend” in school when he was eight. This did not work out well for him. He had no idea how to express his feelings. He second guessed his actions all the time and would do the most random things that most likely made her think he was crazy. He would call her house and play a song over the phone for her, he would give her gifts (pencils, candy, or flowers) which the other kids would make fun of him for. In the end it was peer pressure from her friends that ended their brief romance. She was a sweet girl with a big heart but peer pressure in school can cause even the sweetest to act irrationally. There was a second girl that he went on a date with the next year. This girl was like John in a lot of ways which you would think would make for a perfect couple. Unfortunately John was not sure what he wanted but knew that he was just not comfortable around her and allowed the girl to get away.  

John made a positive impression on the teachers at school. He knew them all and since he lived so close and he could really come and go as he pleased.  He found himself on most days staying to help different teachers after school. He was the youngest safety patrol and because of his clear and commanding voice (when he was confident) he made most of the afternoon announcements for dismissal and for the busses. He helped at the end of the year get the school ready to mothball for a couple of months and helped at the beginning of the year get the school ready to start back up. He knew all the rooms in the school and even how to climb on top of the school, which became a favorite hideout as he got older.  

During this time John tried a couple of seasons of baseball. He was good enough during tee-ball not to need the tee and could hit with the coaches pitching. The next season he played it seemed like he was a magnet and the baseball was a chunk of ferrous metal being thrown in his direction. It seemed every time he went up to bat he would get hit. Maybe it was bad pitching or maybe it was because if they threw the ball where he could hit it, he would do just that, hit it. After that season was over so was his baseball career. John just could not get past the pain of being hit by the ball. He tried basketball for a season but spent most of the time on the bench. This was not because he could not play but because the coach of the time had his favorites and John was not one of them. He had a hoop at home and he practiced everyday but it seemed the coaches had their favorites and it was hard to break into that clique. So after one lonely season on the bench his basketball career was over.  

The one sport that seemed to remain constant was soccer. John loved soccer. The running, the freedom, the ability to excel at multiple positions all made this a fun sport for John. He played soccer year round until he got to high school. He was good at the forward position and able to score goals when he was in that position. He played goalie and had no problem laying out to stop a ball or taking a hit from on opponent charging the goal. Funny enough, some of the balls he stopped or that hit him hurt worse than the times he got hit with the baseballs. John liked knowing that he just saved a goal and the pain didn’t bother him so much. His favorite position to play on the field was the sweeper position. He could get up field and help score goals or he could be the last man to beat on the defense. He enjoyed the ability to patrol the entire field. His favorite game he ever played came during a monsoon. It had rained all night long and when the game started it had started to rain more. Back then, kids would play in the rain if there was not lightning or other severe weather. He scored four goals that day, his team won, and he spent half his time sliding around in the mud. What 8 year old boy would not love that?

John also learned to swim during this time. Swimming was great and John loved to be in the water.  He did not enjoy the swim lessons he had to take though. The swim lessons were held early in the morning when the water was at its coldest. How is one supposed to learn how to swim when they are doing everything they can just to survive the cold? Even though it was difficult to concentrate in the cold water John learned how to swim and did it very quickly. He learned several different strokes well enough to be proficient at each of them including the freestyle, breast, side, and back strokes. He was the best swimmer in his class and before the classes were completed he was doing so well that they allowed him to spend most of his time jumping off the diving board. He took full advantage of this by working on his diving skills then graduating to doing flips. The swimming pool became a home away from home for him as he went to the community pool almost every night during the summer for a couple of years after he learned how to swim.  

While the father was mostly with absent his AA meetings he still managed to take some vacations with the kids. The family visited Disney when John was eight for a couple of days making sure to visit the Magic Kingdom and Universal. They made a couple of trips to Myrtle Beach as well as Panama City Beach. There they spent a lot of time on the beach making sand castles and playing in the surf. When John was nine the father even took John to Charleston, SC. to the Navel Museum there and they spent the night on the retired aircraft carrier The USS Yorktown. While they were in Charleston they also walked through many other retired ships there including diesel submarines from world war two. John was completely mesmerized by the ships and wanted to spend more time looking at all the different systems on each ship but they were on a guided tour and time was very limited. They also took many day trips to the mountains for hiking adventures. The sister went on most of these trips as well though her stamina was not always enough to complete the hiking adventures. These trips were few and spread out over six years but it was more than some kids ever got so John always looked back on these trips as positive memories from his youth.  

Author's Note

Looking for interest in the story. The book is completed and there are many more chapters so if there is continued interest and feedback I can post more. The middle chapters contain more eventful situations.