Do you remember being in elementary school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just reflecting on some of the posts in here about roasting, bullies etc and it's making me reflect back on my elementary school days and all the shenanigans I got up to.

I used to walk up to boys, punch them on the arm and run away as fast as I could. Those horrible "How can you tell if someone is Ethiopian" jokes were popular and kids were repeating those constantly. I started sneaking cigarettes in 5th grade!

Of course we were told not to do these things, but I feel like the powers that be understood that we weren't terrible kids... that we were learning how to be in the world and testing our boundaries.

What are your memories of elementary school? What were some "bad" things that your friends / class got up to?

Yes, you were.

[Anonymous]

Old as dirt PP back.

Elementary field days that were hard core and competitive. We were outside all day and our principal brought a starting pistol. First, second, third place ribbons.

Walking field trips to a classmate’s nearby house to see their garden, or have an end of year party there. No school busses. We all walked. One of my classmates was allowed to just hop the fence to his house adjacent to our playground to change clothes after he fell in a mud puddle at recess. We all stood along the fence line and waited for him to come back out.

Playing Red Rover with and dodgeball with our classroom teachers at recess.

Entire school released hundreds of helium balloons with notes attached for some project.

Dancing to “Chicken Fat” (song) played on a record player in lieu of PE. We didn’t yet have a gym.

Pea gravel and asphalt playgrounds with a dangerously high slide. Blacktop track.

6th grade end of year swimming party. We just walked to the pool. Our teacher wore a bikini and was sunbathing next to the principal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lots of “I’m rubber, your glue” chanting

So much rubber and glue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just reflecting on some of the posts in here about roasting, bullies etc and it's making me reflect back on my elementary school days and all the shenanigans I got up to.

I used to walk up to boys, punch them on the arm and run away as fast as I could. Those horrible "How can you tell if someone is Ethiopian" jokes were popular and kids were repeating those constantly. I started sneaking cigarettes in 5th grade!

Of course we were told not to do these things, but I feel like the powers that be understood that we weren't terrible kids... that we were learning how to be in the world and testing our boundaries.

What are your memories of elementary school? What were some "bad" things that your friends / class got up to?

Yes, you were.

I'm truly sorry for you that you think that way. I hope you don't have children that you expect to be perfect angels, and are horrified when they aren't. That's a recipe for anxiety and depression.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes. I remember all the kids sitting on the floor in the school library to watch the Challenger launch. And then the teachers pushing the TV cart out and the guidance counselor come running in. The next day, all the outer space theme decor was gone and we learned about the Middle Ages for a few weeks instead.

I grew up in a town that was very proud of its cheese factory. The cheese is very popular and well-known to this day. In marching band the twirlers did not know that they were supposed to catch the batons. They just threw them up and retrieved them from where they fell. The twirlers and the band would march through town in the 4th of July parade, and whole herds of dairy cows would march too, so you had to try and keep in time while side-stepping the cow pies.

I remember the same thing w/ the Challenger and that TV cart.

LOL at the parade visuals!

[Anonymous]

Yes. I have memories of before school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just reflecting on some of the posts in here about roasting, bullies etc and it's making me reflect back on my elementary school days and all the shenanigans I got up to.

I used to walk up to boys, punch them on the arm and run away as fast as I could. Those horrible "How can you tell if someone is Ethiopian" jokes were popular and kids were repeating those constantly. I started sneaking cigarettes in 5th grade!

Of course we were told not to do these things, but I feel like the powers that be understood that we weren't terrible kids... that we were learning how to be in the world and testing our boundaries.

What are your memories of elementary school? What were some "bad" things that your friends / class got up to?

God, I'd forgotten about Ethiopian jokes. How horrible in retrospect.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I remember pushing a girls from my class on the swings so that she would give me a picture of Johnny Depp from Teen Beat.

Voting for Dukakis in our class mock election and being the only one.

I was shocked he lost my 2nd grade class election too! And even more shocked in the general. Ooh my sweet baby liberal heart had no idea what was coming.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I remember trying to climb the ropes in gym class. I was terrible at it..like could not get passed the first knot. Mrs Washburn was not pleased

We had a whole rope obstacle course that our elderly, VERY unathletic gym teacher would yell at us about. How was this woman put in charge of physical fitness? No way in hell she could get over it. It's a wonder no one broke their necks. The 80s were wild.

[Anonymous]

Cut-throat field days, especially the class tug of war.

So many first kisses on playground and field trip buses.

Presidental Fitness tests. My name got published in school newsletter bc I got the fastest shuttle run time. Could you even imagine this today?! Ha.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just reflecting on some of the posts in here about roasting, bullies etc and it's making me reflect back on my elementary school days and all the shenanigans I got up to.

I used to walk up to boys, punch them on the arm and run away as fast as I could. Those horrible "How can you tell if someone is Ethiopian" jokes were popular and kids were repeating those constantly. I started sneaking cigarettes in 5th grade!

Of course we were told not to do these things, but I feel like the powers that be understood that we weren't terrible kids... that we were learning how to be in the world and testing our boundaries.

What are your memories of elementary school? What were some "bad" things that your friends / class got up to?

Yes, you were.

I'm truly sorry for you that you think that way. I hope you don't have children that you expect to be perfect angels, and are horrified when they aren't. That's a recipe for anxiety and depression.

I'm not the poster who previously said you weren't a terrible kid, but I agree with them. I remember those racist jokes from when I was in elementary school, and my friends and I knew they were wrong: it was the rough, mean, trashy kids who were repeating those. And sneaking cigarettes in 5th grade was definitely not normal behavior: also rough and trashy. It says a lot about the type of family you were raised in that you view those things as normal and acceptable. There were a lot of people in the 80s who didn't, for your information.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I remember pushing a girls from my class on the swings so that she would give me a picture of Johnny Depp from Teen Beat.

Voting for Dukakis in our class mock election and being the only one.

I was shocked he lost my 2nd grade class election too! And even more shocked in the general. Ooh my sweet baby liberal heart had no idea what was coming.

I remember voting for Walter Mondale because "my dad said Reagan would make us all go to war" 1984.
Who knew Reagan would do so much worse than that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just reflecting on some of the posts in here about roasting, bullies etc and it's making me reflect back on my elementary school days and all the shenanigans I got up to.

I used to walk up to boys, punch them on the arm and run away as fast as I could. Those horrible "How can you tell if someone is Ethiopian" jokes were popular and kids were repeating those constantly. I started sneaking cigarettes in 5th grade!

Of course we were told not to do these things, but I feel like the powers that be understood that we weren't terrible kids... that we were learning how to be in the world and testing our boundaries.

What are your memories of elementary school? What were some "bad" things that your friends / class got up to?

Yes, you were.

I'm truly sorry for you that you think that way. I hope you don't have children that you expect to be perfect angels, and are horrified when they aren't. That's a recipe for anxiety and depression.

I'm not the poster who previously said you weren't a terrible kid, but I agree with them. I remember those racist jokes from when I was in elementary school, and my friends and I knew they were wrong: it was the rough, mean, trashy kids who were repeating those. And sneaking cigarettes in 5th grade was definitely not normal behavior: also rough and trashy. It says a lot about the type of family you were raised in that you view those things as normal and acceptable. There were a lot of people in the 80s who didn't, for your information.

Wonder where those mean, trashy kids are today. I think they are still in my small town on public assistance. Probably great grandparents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just reflecting on some of the posts in here about roasting, bullies etc and it's making me reflect back on my elementary school days and all the shenanigans I got up to.

I used to walk up to boys, punch them on the arm and run away as fast as I could. Those horrible "How can you tell if someone is Ethiopian" jokes were popular and kids were repeating those constantly. I started sneaking cigarettes in 5th grade!

Of course we were told not to do these things, but I feel like the powers that be understood that we weren't terrible kids... that we were learning how to be in the world and testing our boundaries.

What are your memories of elementary school? What were some "bad" things that your friends / class got up to?

Yes, you were.

I'm truly sorry for you that you think that way. I hope you don't have children that you expect to be perfect angels, and are horrified when they aren't. That's a recipe for anxiety and depression.

I'm not the poster who previously said you weren't a terrible kid, but I agree with them. I remember those racist jokes from when I was in elementary school, and my friends and I knew they were wrong: it was the rough, mean, trashy kids who were repeating those. And sneaking cigarettes in 5th grade was definitely not normal behavior: also rough and trashy. It says a lot about the type of family you were raised in that you view those things as normal and acceptable. There were a lot of people in the 80s who didn't, for your information.

Wonder where those mean, trashy kids are today. I think they are still in my small town on public assistance. Probably great grandparents.

It says a lot about the type of family you were raised in that you view those things as normal and acceptable.

It's so funny to me that you think those kids were terrible, but that you as a grown adult come into a forum and trash someone's family of origin without knowing anything about them. In theory, you should know better about kindness and compassion, and yet, here you are, a human after all, needing to put people down to somehow make yourself feel better.

You're wrong that I think they're acceptable.

And I do think that those jokes were terrible. But I draw the line at thinking the KIDS were terrible.

It's an awful type of black and white thinking to label a child like that, and it truly screws kids up when you take their behavior and make it their identity.

Kids need some grace to screw up and learn from it.

As for "where are they now", I imagine for the most part they just turned into normal adults. I know I did.

[Anonymous]

My worst memory from elementary school is being punished for no reason…

There was a girl in my class (and rode my bus also) who had a minor facial deformity. One day I beat her at a game on the bus and she got really mad. To get back at me, the next day she told the teacher and counselor that I had picked on her about her facial deformity. Crocodile tears and everything. Total lie. I got punished both at school and then at home- of course, no one believed me! I hated her for years after, Lol.