Smart as a 5th grader #5
1-15-99
At Recess, I played Duck, Duck, Goose. It’s when people sit in a circle and one person walks around and when (s)he says goose, then the goose tries to get the duck, but if (s)he gets tagged, (s)he’s in the mushpot.
1-19-99
This 3-day weekend I had lots of fun. On Saturday I went places, but not very many. I knew I went to my mom’s work, but I went to DATCU, and other places, too. At DATCU, it had too many people at the drive-thru. On Sunday, I rested. Yesterday, I went to Eureka Park and went shopping.
1-25-99
This weekend, I had a great time. My Grandpa rested. He rested because he had a disease. It probably was a cold. On Saturday, my Grandma worked all day in my upstairs. And on Sunday, she rested.
2-19-99
I want my report card at a one hundred. One hundred is perfect and it’s an A+. You get an A at usual. Sometimes you can get an A-.
Smart as a 5th grader #4
11-13-98
I saw Mrs. Newland’s puppy today! She’s eight weeks old. She has a short tail. She’s brown and white. She’s little. She has fur. She has sharp teeth! The puppy is soft. She’s not big, and she’s cute.
11-18-98
I am doing a president report on James Monroe. Right now he’s dead. He once died on a July 4. He’s famous. But he died a long time ago, a long time before I was born.
11-19-98
I am thankful for my own room. I am also thankful for my dogs. And I am thankful for Jon Greene, all the rest of my friends, and the 5th grade teachers.
12-2-98
On my vacation, I took my van trip to San Francisco and then I flew two airplanes. One airplane was from San Francisco to Maui. The other one was from Maui to Hawaii. In Hawaii, I rented a car and stayed in someone’s house named Nita. In Hawaii, I also swam in the Pacific Ocean. I also went to a wedding and I was in it. My Grandma, Grandpa, Aunts, Uncles and Cousins were there.
12-4-98
I am 11 years old! Today’s my birthday! I have 11-year-old behavior. I have 11-year-old reading. And I do 11-year-old work!
Overheard in the Wolfe House #225
Peggy (watching Sam slice the pizza he made): Wow, Sam. That looks terrific. You are an artist.
Sam: Really? I think I’m more of a producer.
Overheard in the Wolfe House #224
Peggy: You’re up.
Sam: Yes, I slept a lot because I have to work tonight and then again in the morning.
Peggy: I don’t know how you do it.
Sam: Sometimes I get to work in the morning and they say I’m not ready for work.
Peggy: Word.
Smart as a 5th grader #3
10-5-98
On Saturday, I had a busy, busy day. This day I went to church at 4:00. On Sunday, I didn’t go anywhere, but I had a babysitter. But on Saturday, I also rode the horse. It was a ride-a-thon. The ride-a-thin was at Lake Ray Roberts.
10-6-98
Right now in the fish tank we now have fish! We only got 2 fish. One of them is a zebra fish and the other fish is a hatchet fish.
The weather is cold. It’s fall now. One day the leaves blew away and then came the winter.
11-2-98
This weekend, my family was busy just one day, but it was Sunday. On Sunday, are we suppose to have to go to a lot of places? Are we suppose to or not suppose to?
Smart as a 5th grader #2
9-9-98
I get mad when something bad happens. I get mad whenever somebody gets mad at me. Sometimes I get mad whenever my dad or mom gets mad.
9-11-98
At recess time, I played with Sami, Jamie, Kyle, Steve and Jake. I played Twister with all those friends. Twister is about exercises. It’s also about a person that tells you to put one hand or foot on a color.
10-1-98
In the fish tank in this classroom has no fish! The tarantula does not do anything to people when in their cage. If he’s out, he might bite. The tarantula in this classroom is black. The tarantula eats crickets. I never pet tarantulas.
Smart as a 5th grader #1
Sam’s journal from 5th grade doesn’t have the charm and pithiness of his earlier journals, but re-reading his entries, it’s clear that he was ready for middle school. The teachers worked hard to plan his transition, and Mark and I really sweated it, but looking back — you’ll see, too — we didn’t need to worry.
Aug. 14, 1998
My goal is the A-B honor roll all year. The thing I know how is to work hard.
8-19-98
We did our Diamante today. This tells all about me, as a person.
8-24-98
This weekend, I was working on my house. It was upstairs. I’m building a bedroom and a bathroom upstairs. It will be the guest bedroom.
9-4-98
The weather outside at recess is hot. I played with Carly and Maria. We played tag. And I got so hot that I had to go inside and watch a movie. The name of the movie was The Fox and The Hound. I only had to watch a little bit of it because Mrs. Boren came by and she needed me.
Dave’s FCS and the village
My friend, Lyndsay Knecht, gave a shout out on Facebook the other day to the auto shop that our family has patronized since we moved to the Denton area in 1993 — Dave’s Foreign Car Service. She was happy that Dave recognized although her engine light was on, there wasn’t really anything wrong with her car. And he didn’t charge her for the look-see to make sure.
Sam thinks Dave’s is great, too. “They tell me what’s happening,” Sam says. He knows what work they’ve done to his car and what’s coming up — like changing brake pads and the transmission fluid — so he can plan.
“They also let me know when it’s time to get new tires,” Sam says.
He doesn’t get the tires at Dave’s. He goes a few blocks down to Briscoe to get that taken care of.
Because I know most everyone at Dave’s (I wrote about one occasion where Dave talked me off the ledge not long after Mark died), and I know they keep an eye on others who get their referrals, I don’t feel like I have to backtrack to make sure nobody’s taking advantage of Sam as he takes care of his car.
Sometimes, when I think about why Sam wants to stay in Denton (believe me, the marginal quality of life in the Barnett Shale makes you think really hard about that — and I didn’t say “terrible quality of life” because that would be an affront to the people of the Eagle Ford), I know it’s all these small, reliable relationships he has in the community.
The restauranteurs near Albertsons know him, especially the guys at Luigi’s Pizza, where he’s been known to knock back a pie all by himself on a break from work. He schedules his own check-ups at the dentist and the doctor. Wayne Johnson takes good care of his diminishing hair line at Unique Barber Stylists. They know him DATCU credit union, too. And of course, there’s everyone at Born2Be.
Even for adults, it takes a village.
What I did on my spring vacation
I’ve been home from work for the past week, burning off vacation time that I would have otherwise lost. I didn’t make any plans, other than to visit Mark’s Aunt Regina in East Texas. I was able to stop by Born2Be Wednesday and watch Sam prepare for regional Special Olympics.
Here he is working on part of his trail pattern
Sam and I took Regina out to lunch and then we took her on a drive to, and through, Mrs. Lee’s Garden.
Regina told us that, back in the garden’s heyday, there were many more daffodils than we saw on Friday. I can’t imagine. The Dallas Arboretum should have so many blooms.
Sam and I took turns taking photos of each other sitting on a rock in the sun. It was a beautiful day.
Then we went back to Regina’s house and helped her change a handful of lightbulbs, something we do for her in about three out of every four visits. Sam put a CFL in one slot, and that bulb just keeps on shining. But we can’t talk her out of the incandescents in the other spots. I forget how frequently those burn out.
This week at home, I raised puttering to competitive sport. Well, maybe not puttering as much as spending time at the bottom of the to-do list, taking care of those things that always seem to languish. The loppers got fixed, for example, as did the hose to the shop vac. Then a whole bunch of stuff got lopped or vacuumed.
Inside the house, I went through my annual ritual of cleaning out files to make room for other paper. I figure if I don’t buy more filing cabinets, then I can keep the paper collection down. It’s hard. I see so many things as source material, holding the potential to be the start of another great story.
While tending the garden, I got plenty of thinking time in. Then turned that into more personal writing time. That always feels good.
About ten years ago, I read a magazine story about how to keep the spirit of a vacation going after returning to the daily grind. It really improved our family’s quality of life to find lazy time together, occasionally staying up late to watch a movie or make an otherwise ordinary meal a grand occasion. A week at home packs its own wisdom for the rest of your days. I think I finally caught on.
Best Limerick About Vegetables Ever
There once was a potato named Tom
And he went to the store for his mom.
He went to buy some squash
He’s got some veggies to wash
And something outside was damaged by a leafhopper-bomb.
— By Sam Wolfe (date unknown)