The First Year

Chapter Six

The First Year

Thanksgiving day 1959 it snowed. I had never seen it snow before. My tiny little part of this world had changed. I watched as leaves turned colors and fell. It was strange seeing a naked tree for the first time. I thought for sure the world was coming to an end. I hauled canned goods to the cellar preparing for our impending doom. Of course, we wouldn't have lasted long because all I ever brought was whole colonel canned corn. The stuff was stashed everywhere. Mom was going crazy trying to figure out where it all was going.

The leaves changing colors wasn't the only strange phenomena taking place...I turned into a white guy. Not only that, but my whole family had turned into a den of white people, a new species of human life.

By now I was more convinced than ever before that the world was ending .What other explanation could their be? The dark skin that once covered 99% of my body was now chalky white. My brother told me our bodies had been taken over by aliens from outer space. I didn't believe him at first until we all came down with chicken pox.

CHICKEN POX! We didn't have chicken pox in Venezuela. Maybe some other stuff like the mumps, but chicken pox? The corn was going into the cellar at record pace.

Unfortunately, my dad wasn't around to share these adventures with us. Seems he had to go back to Venezuela for one more year. Apparently a person can't just up and leave a job without proper notification. Sometimes I don't think parents think things out too clearly. I don't think I've ever met one single clear thinking adult during my year as a fifth grader, unless, of course, you count Mrs. Barrett.

Mrs. Barrett was about the clearest thinker I ever knew.

Without my father Thanksgiving seemed a little sad, a little anticlimactic, a little...I mean, who was going to carve the turkey?

But besides the fact my Dad wasn't around, there was the weather. I think it was like minus 100 degrees outside. It was the strangest Thanksgiving of all Thanksgivings ever thanked for. I'm not exactly sure what that means, but it seems to somehow make sense, or not.

I came to discover a lot of things that year, for instance, snow is cold, really, really cold.

Secondly, you can't go outside in shorts and bare feet for more than about a minute or two without getting this thing called frostbite.

It was a painful lesson, but I survived.

On our first day back to school Mrs. Barrett asked me what I thought of the snow.

I told her I was a little disappointed it didn't fall in snowballs. Sarah looked at me and laughed,

“Snowballs. Mike, you're the funniest boy I know.”

Sarah always knew just the right thing to say to keep my spirits high.

I discovered TV that year, and The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis.

I listened to radio stations from Oklahoma KOMA and WLS in Chicago.

That summer I also discovered little league baseball and snow cones.

I think I liked the snow cones better than baseball.

It took awhile, but I finally came to the realization I would never be a big league player.

I wasn't even the fastest runner in my class anymore.

I didn't see Mary much anymore that year. I think she was still mad about that cafeteria thing.

I would catch her glaring at me from time to time. Once I think I saw lightning bolts shooting from her eyes.

I don't know why, but, that spring my older brother and his best friend peed in the oven and then lit it. I'm not sure what happened next, all I know is the canary died.

They were unable to explain this strange phenomena to my mother.

My younger brother Ben nearly cut off all the fingers on his left hand in an accident with the garage door. I don't recall the details, but it was a freakish thing. My oldest sister Mary Ellen ran from house to house shouting in a panic,

“He's cut off his arm, he's cute off his arm.”

My sister could panic better than anyone I know.

I kissed Sarah for the first time on the last day of school. I didn't know it then, but it was our one and only kiss.

She was a farm girl living in the country and rarely got to come to town.

My Dad returned from Venezuela and we moved to Dallas where he went into business with my Uncle Kenneth and their partner Bill Riddle. They opened Lyle and Riddle Appliance Stores.

I called Sarah before we left and told her the news. I think I heard her cry. We never spoke again.

There's one thing I've learned about being a fifth grade kid; sooner or later you're going to be a sixth grade kid, and it doesn't matter where you live on this globe, the train of life keeps rolling down the tracks. Sooner or later it comes to a stop and you have to get off. Hopefully my stop is a long way down the tracks. My bucket is not nearly full enough.

Author's Note

Adjusting to a new world can be fun.

Reviews

[Marie]

I didn't know what snow was either, the first time I saw it. Of course, I was younger than you, not even a first grader yet. But I remember we were living in Austin, and there was a freak cold spell. We didn't have central heat. I can't imagine that now.

I don't know what your brother and his friend were thinking of. In fact, I'd rather not.