Daugher Number Three, Age Nine

Well, 2016 has been such a bad year that I forgot to mark my own blogging anniversary a few days ago, on December 16. It's been nine years since I started this odd combination of rants and admonitions, which means 3,408 posts have been uploaded into that ethereal space some people call the World Wide Wreck.

At age 9, I was in fourth grade. I don't have a school photo from that year since we only bought those for each of the four daughters in my family every other year, so we have to make do with this black and white snapshot from Christmas:


The year was 1968-69. Nixon was elected that fall. Eisenhower died at some point during the school year, and I remember that, though not a lot of other important stories. Oh yes, the Apollo space program was in high gear, in preparation for the summer landing on the moon. That was a big story at our house.

At school we were learning the times tables for the numbers six through nine, plus lots of spelling and vocabulary words. This was the year I learned to use an Oxford comma, though it wasn't called that. We learned songs, too — the Erie Canal song, "Come and Hear the German Band," "This Land Is Your Land." We had religious education (in school! during the school day! though taught by lay educators). And my teacher had a boy tie one of his teeth — which had fallen out — to a string, then dangle it inside a bottle of Coke for a few days so we could see how it rotted.

My grades were consistently Bs. There were just two Ss on my report card's fourth quarter, in music and physical education, of all things. I got minuses from my teacher for my language skills (grammar) in one quarter, two minuses for "works with accuracy," and an early minus for "shows skill in use of maps, charts, and reference materials." Maybe fourth grade is when I learned all of those skills; who knows?

On the plus side, I got no minuses at all for my social, work, personal, or health habits. I was absent 16 days total, so I guess I was healthier than in third grade.

So now I have begun the 10th year of Daughter Number Three. Thanks for hanging in with me as we check out the way to hell in a handbasket.

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Past anniversary posts, each with age-appropriate photographic evidence:

• First
• Second
• Third
• Fourth 
• Fifth 
• Sixth 
• Seventh
• Eighth