AmazonMidwife

When I was 11 years & 8 months, the 6th grade classes put on a play about Rip Van Winkle from our reader. I was cast as Mrs. Van Winkle and my three strongest memories from the performance were:

1. Scooter was in it. (We went to the same grade school, with 2 classes for each grade, but were only in class together for one year, 3rd grade. Guess the faculty could see that combined, we might not always use our powers for good. They probably should have warned our junior high & high school teachers.)

2. I was encouraged to be mean and loud and bossy, the latter two talents I had (have) aplenty which were discouraged elsewhere. And I even got to hit Russ Bailey in the butt with a broom! (of course that was the most vivid memory)

3. My mom sewed a cool costume for me to wear. This was a less vivid memory, 'cause my mom sewed a lot of my clothes when I was that age, so I took it for granted. Home Ec was one of her majors and she was an excellent seamstress, a quality I learned to appreciate most after she was gone & I had to sew all the kids' costumes & pjs with my meager junior high time in the home ec sewing room.

Time passed and lots more things happened that were more memorable than the play. (see #1 italics for a good example) I forgot all about the costume until I was cleaning out the house after my mom died. I found it in a drawer with some baby clothes and socks. (My mom saved lots of things, including many photo albums & scrapbooks with newspaper clippings, old report cards, etc. including photos of the play & a picture from our smalltown newspaper.)