11/2/07

I Have A Picture Of Dexter, My First Crush


Me Mean girl in yellow Dexter
(Get a load of my hair)


This is my third grade classroom, the scenery of my first post(after "read more" below) to receive a lot of comments. The popularity of the post has remained consistent throughout my months of blogging. Maybe because it's about a first crush, even if the theme is recyclable. I guess people can relate because we never forget our first crush. I noticed when I read the comments that we seldom forget our first loves name, others things , but not their name. For example, I forgot what Dexter looked like until I went through my mothers pictures last weekend looking for him.

I decided to repost this post to celebrate and thank google for my first report card.(PR page rank) You know, third grade, report card, I know it's corny, but I also bought a new scanner and found a picture of Dexter. In addition, I wanted to publicly thank my best friend Christy, from Christy's Coffee Break for encouraging me to blog and for letting me in on the good news from Google. If you're a beginning blogger be sure and check out Christy's Blogging tips every Tuesday, it pays off. I've been lucky to have more experienced bloggers in addition to Christy, take me under their wing since I first signed in on blogger. For instance, Sandee at Comedy Plus, and Dawn at Twisted Sister's friendship has been an invaluable treasure while launching, A Nice Place In The Sun, including all of you that visit often and comment every day. Thank you for your support and friendship (I hope you know who you are) and you most certainly have mine in return.

I've been checking and rechecking the toolbar all week, and I'm grateful to google for such a nice report card. Although it isn't as valuable (sorry google) as your friendship and the support of my readers. Alright I'll stop with the mushiness, and let you go to meet my classroom or read the comments, unless you're out of time now from the length of this post. I've encircled some of the characters in the post with the exception of Mrs. Keysler, of course, you can tell who she is without a circle.

Please enjoy my memory of Dexter, my first love, the mean girl who called me dumb, my third grade teacher, and a whistle.



Do you remember your first childhood crush? Mine was on a boy named Dexter, in my third grade class.

I don't remember much about him, or what he looked like, except that he loved to draw, and drew a perfect Charlie Brown. Dexter sat across from me in class, so I watched him draw everyday, while I thought about other things instead of listening to our teacher. When our third grade teacher lectured, all I heard was a voice reminiscent of the adult voices in the Charlie Brown television specials. In other words, I heard, bloc, bloc, bloc, roll off her tongue most of the day. To me, she just rambled a bunch of jumbled grown-up words, that we "bright-eyed and bushy tailed" third graders, hadn't the slightest interest in. Her name was Mrs. Keysler, and she wore those cat-eyed sixties glasses with a chain that jangled when she walked, so we could here her coming at recess. Anyhow, one day while Dexter was drawing, and I was staring at him, my heart thumping around in my chest, I noticed a new shiny whistle on the top of his desk, and when I asked him if I could look at, he put it in my hand. Our teacher continued speaking in the background, bloc, bloc, bloc, bah, bloc… as I turned the whistle over and over in my hand. Then I took the whistle, put it up to my mouth, and blew it as hard as I could! The room fell silent.

After which, I heard the hushed sound of children’s voices fill the empty silence, followed by that snickering sound children make before they start pointing fingers! It's such an annoying tactic among tattlers, whose goal at this time in their life, is to retire as the teachers pet! I could feel the stares, and of course, see their self-serving tattler fingers rise to the occasion, and point in my direction! I heard one little girl cry, “She is sooo dumb!” I just sat there, horrified, as my face grew hot and flushed with humiliation. I thought of this story when thinking of what to write as part of an “about me” profile for a writer’s social community. I was thinking of why I became a writer…, which is another post, that lends a reference to how important a role I think teachers play, in helping us shape our self image; so I guess I was thinking of my teachers, and for some reason Dexter popped into my head!

Anyway, that's what I remember about my first crush; 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!

After that, Dexter (who may have turned out to be an illustrator) looked at me with a cautious look on his face, for what seemed like the rest of my life, and the girl who called me “soooo dumb”, turned out to be one of my closest friends! We never know what our children are going through in a day, or experiencing with their first crush, do we?

I’ll have to ask my son about his experience with his first crush. Do you remember yours?

I was so proud of the comments I received from this post. Here's the link.

18 comments:

Christy said...

Hi Ann, that is such a sweet post! I love it! Thank you for always being so absolutely nice to me!

That's great to see your old school picture, how cool. I don't have a picture of my first crush, but if I remember correctly that's probably a good thing, lol.

Page Rank four is pretty darn good for a first report card. Coffee Break's first ranking was 2, so you are outdoing me!!

Big Hugs and Happy Friday!! Chris:)

Anonymous said...

Ann, you tell the best stories. LOVE the old photograph too. I have crushes weekly it seems and I have since I was little. My crush-o-meter is broken and stuck on high! :-) I remember a crush on my dad's friend when I was 5 or 6. Of course it was from afar as the man was in his twenties. I had a penchant for older men even back then it seems. Hee hee. I had a really cool thing happen this week too, a boy I dated when we were both q8 (and I wasa so smitten with him) contacted me . We had so much fun catching up and it's been TWENTY years but he remembered that my birthday was in January. The guy I married doesn't even know when my birthday is!!! LOL.

aniceplaceinthesun.blogspot.com said...

Christy, Isn't my hair awful? Can you believe my mother let me out of the house like that? I almost didn't circle my picture, but then I thought people wouldn't understand that is was my third grade classroom. You're welcome for the post, and I'm glad you liked it. Your friendship is special to me. I will always be grateful I read your article that day, and that we're friends. And I'll never catch up with you Batman, never. :)

Happy Friday to you too, and Big hugs back!

Ann

aniceplaceinthesun.blogspot.com said...

Polli, You tell the best stories too. I laughed the entire time I was reading this comment. I loved the mental image of a "crush-o- meter stuck on high." LOL. I also had a crush on a few friends of my parents when I was a young child. You wouldn't think crushes could start that young, but evidently they can. Judging by me and you anyway. LOL You're great Polli, and I love the comment. Thanks for reading.

(Hugs)Ann

Sandee said...

What a great story Ann. I loved it. You must have been a really fun kid. I would have liked you. As with Christy, thanks for always being so nice to me. You are a dear friend, and I hope you realize how dear you are to me. Have a great evening. :)

aniceplaceinthesun.blogspot.com said...

Ditto, Sandee, I'm so happy we're friends, and I think we'll remain friends for a long time. :)


(Hugs) Ann

DiamondsSaphire said...

You are a brave lady for posting your school picture, I think I have burned all mine..Not really but I would be scared to post any pictures of me when I was a kid!! Great post, as always Ann!!

aniceplaceinthesun.blogspot.com said...

Diamond, Lol. How do you like the hairdo? I found this at my mothers last weekend. I can't believe I posted it either. LOL Thanks for the hilarious comment.

Have a nice day.

Ann

mr fong said...

Indeed, you tell only the best stories. I'm thoroughly enthralled. Thanks, you are truly the best writer! :)))

Marja said...

Hi Ann I can see why you liked Dexter. Nice piture. I didn't realise that some of your blogging friends are friends in real life. How amazing. I read their blogs sometimes. They have great blogs.
Sorry about my naivity but do I understand that you are a writer in real life as well. How exciting that would be. Clear this up for me.

aniceplaceinthesun.blogspot.com said...

Winston, Thank you so much. You always make my day. :))


I'm so glad you enjoyed my story.

Ann

aniceplaceinthesun.blogspot.com said...

Marja, LOL! Real life? I met the friends I'm speaking of through blogging. Isn't that amazing? Well, actually I read an article Christy wrote on the writers site helium. Have you heard of helium? I went to her profile page on helium and noticed that she was a writer with a blog. Then, I went to Christys Coffee Break and was amazed by the concept of blogging. Coffee Break reminded me of a little coffee shop or little writers community, or I guess I even thought he was a writers community at first. Until I started to read it everyday. I thought, well here is a writer who has created an audience for her work, as she writes it. You know, as opposed to a web site that only promotes a writers work. In fact, some of the writers associations I belong to will not allow me to link to them unless I write only about writing itself, or writing in a certain genre. Well, I'm not just a children's writer. I'm a writer period. I didn't want to put the material I planned on publishing (manuscripts) on the web, but I wanted to connect with others. In addition, I thought by entertaining others, I could use the opportunity to suggest children's books and eventually my own work (humorist/children) to everyone, not just people interested in writing. I've been writing all my life, and have some college, but stopped years ago for reasons far to complicated to go into here. But, I think when we're born to do something I think we return to it, regardless of a long absence. Although I didn't return until recently. One reason, is that my son is grown, and I'm no longer his sole provider. It's hard to explain all of this in a comment. But, I thought it may not make much sense that I haven't any novels or children's books already on the market. I didn't want you to think I'm a bad writer. LOL It's exciting and I've been really lucky to have some freelance work to keep me going, until the day of the Pulitzer. :)) I also plan on blogging to supplement my income while I wait for publication dates for my children's manuscripts, and the money to research and write a novel some day. Anyway, that's my real world. No best selling novels. Freelance work has to pay the bills so it gets priority. LOL. I hope this is not too long, but I wanted to answer your question. There is a romantic stigma attached to writers that is really far from the reality. But, if you are pulled to write and have the drive to get your material out there, it can come true. I hope it does for me, although I'm content if I can just write for a living, and so far that's what I've been able to do. I feel very blessed that I can. I think you are a very good writer Marja. I was impressed with the poem you posted recently, and I love all of your posts. Have you ever thought about submitting them?
I hope that clear things up for you. Thanks for all your support and friendship, and when my children's manuscripts get a publication date I will keep you a buzz. I just don't want to promote mu work on A Nice Place In The Sun, and of course there are literary
rules about that as well. I also wanted to tell you that I responded to a review request to help promote a title that's publication date is right around the corner on Nov 5th. In other words it's not in the stores yet. The pub.Co is sending me a complementary copy, so I can't tell you the title. But come and read my review on Nov.5

I think your kids will really like this book.

Have a great evening, and again, I hope this answers you question. Yes, I'm a writer in real life. kind of anyway. :))

Love, Ann

Speedcat Hollydale said...

I always mean to go through albums at the parents house and duplicate some of my own picture archives. I have NO pictures from my past that are more than 10 years old.
I've wanted to post a certain "mullet picture" from 1984. You reminded me to look for it!
Great post Ann :)
Speedy

mr fong said...

Ann, what a comprehensive reply to Marja. Haha, I was enthralled until you finished the comment- it feels like 2 posts embedded in one!

aniceplaceinthesun.blogspot.com said...

Speedy, You have to go get that picture! That sounds hilarious. It would make a really good post. I had such fun going through old family pictures. I don't know if you saw it but I found a letter my brother wrote about me in his second grade journal entitled My Sister Is A Bad Little Girl. It is really funny. I have a feeling you'll find some great stuff to post about. I can't wait to see. Thanks for the visit and comment~

Ann

aniceplaceinthesun.blogspot.com said...

Winston, LOL. I don't know why I rambled on like that. (laugh)

I couldn't get the words out for some reason. Do you ever feel like that? (Laugh) By the way, I was relieved to hear that you were four when you attacked the Power Ranger. LOL. I thought about that this morning during cartoons. I get such a kick out of that story. It's so funny. Poor Marja, I hope she will comment again. I didn't mean to go on and on. LOL. Have a great night Pal, and thanks for the extra comment. :))

Ann

Marja said...

Oh this is so exciting Ann. I would love to hear about your book and would love to have it. Than I can brag; a friend wrote this. No seriously I love children's books, that would even be my first choice when i write one. One day I will for sure. I love writing too but it takes a lot of time and I am completely new to that world, so I first have to work out how it all works and I do the blogging to get used to writing regularly although that's still hard. I am so happy for you though. Thanks for telling me all this. Oh and I just see it is NOv the 5th so I will come back later. In Nz we are probably about 8 hours ahead of you.
Few questions still You said You are a writer period. What do you mean by that.
Anyways have a great day and till soon

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