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Hello, and welcome to Tuesday's Question. I have a Doctor appointment out of town today, so if I do not respond to your answers today, I most certainly will tomorrow.  Thank you, Sandee of Comedy Plus for you wonderful answer to last Tuesday's Question and thank you Ann of Snap, Edit, Scrap.   for yours.

Please, if you have the time, read Sandee and Ann's answers to Sibling Rivalry they're simply fabulous and thanks to both of you for participating. I appreciate you.

Okay, this weeks question is:  

Do you remember your first crush?   Alright, I'll go first...

My first crush was on a boy named Dexter who sat next to me in the third grade and he was fascinating. Dexter had action figures hidden in his desk and maps he drew of oceans, rivers, mountains and streams.                                                                                                                                                                                        


I loved it when our classroom was full, because I could pull my desk close to him and ask him questions, although he never answered me.                                                        

He smelled like nickels and could draw Charlie Brown as well as Charles Schulz from the Peanuts cartoon. - Or, at least, I thought he could.-

I think he drew Charlie Brown because our third grade teacher's voice was reminiscent of the adult voices in the Peanuts television specials, but to me all teachers sounded the same. My teachers shared the muffled inflections of grown-ups, "bloc, bloc, bloc, bloc...with a "Good morning children, you sure look bright-eyed and bushy tailed today."-An introduction that made me feel like like a rabbit.-

Our teacher's name was Mrs. Keysler, and she wore cat-eyed sixties style glasses with a chain that jiggled when she walked, so she could clear a path for herself down a crowded hallway of children- Mrs. Keysler had power.-

I drove poor Dexter crazy most of the year, but he was a good sport, because if the tables were turned,  I would have requested a different desk.  But, he had a way of ignoring people, especially me. I asked him stuff like, "

"What did you have for breakfast today?"

He responded by looking at me like he wished I would miss a day of school. So, I finally quit trying to talk to him, although I still stared at him like a starving wolf would glare at a loaf of bread.

Ordinarily, I couldn't take my eyes off Dexter, but one day he brought stiff competition. Dexter's brought a new whistle to school and it wasn't one of those toy whistles you get in a Cracker Jack box... no siree, Dexter's whistle was A + silver army grade whistle, and I was fascinated by it.

He noticed me staring at it resting on the corner of his desk by his drawing pad, and to my surprise, he quietly picked it up and placed it in my hand, while Mrs. Keysler continued speaking in the background, bloc, beep, beep, bloc, blah…

Anyway, I was holding the whistle Dexter put in my hand, plus, I was sitting close enough to him to touch his copper colored hair. I was in a trance, all of this was simply too much. So, I turned the whistle over in my hand, put it in my mouth, and blew it so hard a blast echoed forth like a trumpet.

Every student shook their heads and covered their ears. The floor in the classroom felt like it bounced beneath the surface of the earth and hung there. -Which was followed by a few seconds of stinging silence.-

That finger pointing thing, is such an annoying tactic among tattlers, whose goal in life is to retire as the teachers pet. I face felt hot from the stares, as the little self-serving informants fingers continued to point in my direction. I heard one little girl cry, “Oh, she is soo dumb!” and of course, I sat there horrified; my face flushed with humiliation.

Humiliation is just one of an array of emotions I associate with the day I blew Dexter's whistle; it's also one of those funny to me now, not so funny then, experiences especially since my teacher made me stand in the back of the classroom the rest of the day with my back turned toward the wall.
After that, Dexter looked at me with a cautious look for the rest of the school year and the girl who called me “sooo dumb” turned out to be one of my closest friends, years later.

We never know what our children are going through in a day, or much, if anything, about their first crushes.

My mother thinks to this day that I just blew a whistle in the middle of class for absolutely no reason that she can phantom. Do you know who your children are thinking about today?


Mrs. Keyster




Mrs. Keysters Third Grade Class

I'm circled in purple, Dexter is in Blue, and the "Oh shes' so dumb friend" is circled in yellow.

Our Close- ups:

Me
"Mean girl/closest friend"



Dexter









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