Formative Years – Getting Schooled

Elementary Watson

My first year in school was 1st grade, for some reason I skipped kinder garden; it sure wasn’t because I was academically advanced.  Got my first spanking for crawling under a table to look under girls’ dresses.  Why?  I have no idea, you’d think after growing up with two women in a small house that some knowledge would have been acquired.  And yes, they spanked kids in school back in those days (and I’m still alive).

In 2nd grade there was the kissing tree located at the further most corner of the playground. It was Y-shaped and various young couples would kiss in the nook of the Y. Why?  Can’t remember what the driver was; perhaps curiosity about the opposite sex.  There sure were a bunch of us 2nd graders that were curious (maybe it was in the water).  Of course I was very knowledgeable about the opposite sex since I knew that babies came from the sewer system.

The 3rd grade brought fist fights which resulted in talks with mom & the principal; accompanied by a little time off from school. It didn’t matter if I started the fight – which I didn’t. Or if I lost – which I did, although it was a small victory to bleed all over the guy cause I had a glass nose. Also had a bout of the dreaded Black X disease courtesy the teacher’s magic marker on the back of my hands for forcing my hand to flip the bird with a pencil.  My interest in language expanded to sign language as I learned how to conjugate the F word and other words in the blue language.

Midgard

Subsequent years through middle school brought more fights, but the frequency did diminish for two reasons. I couldn’t fight to save my tail and I learned that if you were funny, you were useful.  Make them laugh and you don’t get hit.

Being an only child you learn to amuse yourself, so I became an ardent reader of science fiction. Joined the sci-fi book of the month club and I usually had the current book read well before the next one came. While waiting for the next book installment, I whetted my appetite on good ole comic books; e.g., Silver Surfer, Thor, Fantastic Four, etc. etc. Not only did reading provide entertainment in my middle through high school years (and adult life), it also fit well with being invisible from the knuckle dragging step-father. In addition, it was a great form of escape and the genre contributed to my eventual love of science & math

Somewhere in middle school I was exposed to Roman & Greek mythology and found it interesting how closely they paralleled another. Given my interest in Thor comic books and because of my (real) last name/heritage, I expanded my quest for knowledge into Norse mythology.  Much to my delight, this parallelism was prevalent in Egyptian, as well the folk of Norsemen.  I have very faint recollections of attending Sunday school as a child; according to my mother, I had the freedom to attend or not – I chose not.  Reading about various religions I made the leap of non-faith and formed my own opinion about religion.  Specifically since “man” has an opposable thumb it makes him a “tool maker.” And just like Tim the Tool-man, you make things, so mankind has reasoned (paraphrase) “…that if I make, therefore I’ve been made…”.  Furthermore religion and drugs/alcohol are the same; just crutches for people that are weak and can’t handle life.  I now find it so absurd that my middle school rationalization was my mantra for so many years.

 

On to High School – Land of Enchantment

Or go back to the previous blog Genesis

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