aqua fortis

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Tuning In To Say...

No, I haven't dropped off the face of the planet. Not yet, anyway, though various and sundry forces seem to be attempting to conspire to make me do so. But I WILL BLOG! Today all you get is a LINK, but trust me, it's a good one. It comes courtesy of TadMack and will remind you of the bad old days of portrait photography (still alive and well in some places, I assure you). Speaking of portrait photography, there is a picture of me and my dad that horrifies Rob every time we go to my dad's house for a visit, because in the photo it's just so obvious that I was just crying my eyes out. I can't remember exactly why I was so upset, but I think it was some combination of not wanting to visit my dad in the first place + not wanting to go get some stupid Sears photo taken + not wanting to be forced to wear a traditional Pakistani outfit + being eight-ish years old.

Anyway, speaking of childhood trauma, I do fully intend to finish that story (started below) about Groter School and my fun and fabulous second year there. Mouths washed out with soap! Bare bottoms spanked with rulers in front of the class! (Neither of those inflicted on me personally, thank God.) Woefully old-fashioned reading material! Random German songs! Pink Floyd! You'll just have to wait to hear the stories.

8 comments:

David T. Macknet said...

You know, yikes! I remember similar things from 4th grade - involving a ping-pong paddle - and the year being my only year at that school. Freaky.

Anonymous said...

I went to Groter School for years. I can confirm everything but the Volleyball. If you want more details let me know, I was one of the kids in the older classroom when you were there and I remember the former school too.

I think it was the original school across from the cemetary (Bellevue) in two buildings as well, it's now a church again.

You might be happy to learn that the school you went to at 123(?) J Street in Ontario (converted from a large house) has now been demolished to the ground. :-)

Sarah Stevenson said...

Anonymous: Wow! I spent my second year there in the older classroom, so maybe I'd remember you? I only remember a handful of people, though, since I was pretty young.

Okay, now I'll really have to continue my Groter School saga! :)

Anonymous said...

I had a twin sister. We were the only twins at the school at that time.

I can give you some names of the kids in that classroom at the time:

Tony Slead
Tom Maholic
Chad Montgomery
Kasmira Finch (Kash)
Hershel Price (Pronounced Hershelle)
Danny Lansing
Daniel Dyer

and I think your modern dance teacher was former student John Price. He didn't wear a unitard he wore a tank top or a tee shirt and black tights over his underwear. You could see his underwear through it. We would pass by the class (when delivering a note or something) and look through those big windows and laugh.

Sarah Stevenson said...

I don't know if I remember twins...were you a sister and brother, Miriam and Simeon?

From the older classroom, I do sort of remember Chad...he was blond, right? I also remember Shayna Peruch, who found me again several years later in junior high, though we lost touch again after that. I was also friends with Michelle Artolachipe (sp?). I remember a Travis who was kind of naughty (more on that in a later post) and a guy who wore a lot of Pink Floyd shirts...

Anonymous said...

No. girl twins (identical) we were a year older than Chad Montgomery (the blond). I had a big crush on Chad and then all the girls said they did too (copycats) and one day he bursts out in a squeaky kids voice "What am I a SEX symbol?!" The only person that didn't have a crush on Chad was my sister and she got all his attention as a consequence. When we'd play board games on rainy days he'd pick her as his "wife" in Monopoly. He would hide all the money under the table and give her an allowance. Also, he wore a three-piece suit on dress up days, and we figure it's because his Dad was a lawyer. He also played Hockey.

I remember Miriam and Simeon, but she was a year older than him. Their parents were from the Philippines.

Travis was a bad kid, it seems the only thing I remember. Sandy blond hair, tan skin and a bad attitude. Travis. lol

Anonymous said...

WOW here I am checking for the hell of it to see what comes up when you google your name and my name pops up in your blog. I am Tony Slead and I still remember you guys (the twins) very well. I was best friends with Thomas Maholic. This is so wierd.

Sarah Stevenson said...

That's crazy that this post is turning into a mini Groter reunion, since there isn't much out there on the internet about the school itself.

I never mentioned my name (I try to stay pretty anonymous online; guess I'm paranoid) but my name's Sarah and I was probably the one of the smallest kids in the older classroom. I seem to remember spending a lot of time reading McGuffy readers in the smaller room off the main classroom...