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04:21:2002 Entry: "The Ides of March and Toe Pinching"
The Ides of March and Toe Pinching
We were originally going to go to the vet today for the dog's annual heartworm checkup, but cancelled that because it's the Ides of March, and well, we're superstitious. So instead, this morning Stan and I went to my bank to open a small 6-month CD with the left over money from the refinancing. So on our CD, the opening date says March 15, 2002, (the Ides of March) and the maturity date says September 11, 2002 (the 1-year anniversary of the 911 Attack). Just another of those WEIRD things...
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Since the tone of my journal lately has been bringing up bad stuff from my past (which is sort of fun to write about, I don't know why), I thought I'd mention this one thing from when I was about eight:
I had moved to Liverpool, New York (suburb of Syracuse) from Raynham, Massachusetts (suburb of nowhere) in the summer of '69. I was about to start the third grade. Craven Crawford Elementary in the housing development of Bayberry (which is probably its own suburb of Liverpool by now) was a much larger school than North School in Raynham that was a very old four classroom school house that only housed first and second grade. I actually enjoyed myself at CC Elementary and got along well with the other kids, unlike my to-be-future experience of moving to Colorado, but that's another story.
Lots of kids ate in the very large lunchroom, and for some odd reason the janitors were the lunchroom monitors. We were all pretty well-behaved, but we naturally had annoying kid habits that were only natural, one being putting our feet up on the lunchroom chairs. This annoyed one janitor in particular, a big fat man that just seemed monstrous compared to us elementary students. Since he abhored cleaning mud and dirt off the chairs, he implemented his own preventive measure: pinching the toes of the offending students. I couldn't believe my eyes when I first saw him reach down to pinch a toe of a student. I couldn't believe the cruelty. He actually made some kids cry. I made up my mind I would never ever put my feet up on the chair.
Then one time I was caught up in fun and conversation and absentmindedly put my foot up on the chair where it was more comfortable.
It happened in slow motion, the hand reaching down...I didn't even know what was happening; the grasping of my toe...was this really what I thought it was? The hard squeeze and pinch, and then a shake of the hand holding the foot which seemed to send more of a signal of shame than just a steady pinch would have. I couldn't believe I forgot not to put my foot up! After it was over, my face turned red and my toe still hurt from the excessive force he used. The other kids looked at me, their expressions were that of empathetic indifference as they all had it happen to them at some time too. We went on eating our lunches as if nothing happened; those things happened every day.
It's just amazing that someone like that was allowed to get away with that. What a scary person. I hope when he went to a nursing home, one of the former students there was an aide taking care of him...and paid him back each time he got something dirty.
3 Comments
I guess it's easier and even sometimes funny to write about bad stuff from the past instead of writing bad stuff going on in the moment, bad stuff is never funny when it's going on ;o] It's also some therapy in writing down stuff.
I admitt I find it kind of funny to read about this guy who hurted kids toes ;o] All though I have sympathy for you toe.
Posted by Nico @ 03/15/2002 02:14 PM CST
The abuses to children's dignity, is now and was then just aweful!
Posted by Deb @ 03/15/2002 03:00 PM CST
Just you keep being superstitous!! I had one HELL of an Ides of March day at work yesterday!! EVERYTHING went wrong, and nothing got better until last night. (We went out to dinner, and the singapore slings fixed my brain, not the situations!) ARGH! What a day!! :op
Posted by Maria @ 03/16/2002 09:18 AM CST