...where by "early" I mean elementary school and before. ^_~
In my parents' basement are a couple boxes filled with, it seems, every piece of paper on which my sister or I ever so much as scribbled. I decided to post a few here because I know I'd be thrilled to see the early childhood creations of my friends, and because I think it's funny how much you can tell about me now from what I did then. Fortunately, I am now a better speller.
Pick which segment of the scrapbook you'd like to see:
One thing I found in the Box o'Stuff was a report card of sorts for the preschool I attended, from which I will share one small clip:
Friendly Rainbow Three-Year-Old Progress Report
For Jessie, DOB: 8/28/82, Date: 5/6/86
Notes: I just love to listen to Jessie's stories! She is so creative describing her art pictures!
Apparently I was compelled to tell stories before I could even write them down. Those with a penchant for storytelling never seem to take long to reveal it. When I get stuck thinking that my current story projects are horrible, this comment from two decades ago encourages me to keep trying.
The first presidential election that I can remember was in 1988, when I was in the first grade, and I really got into it! I asked my mom if she encouraged me to do so; she says I just picked up on it myself. I had spirited debates with a boy who was my particular friend that year whose mother was voting for George Bush. They went something like this:
"My mom says Bush is better."
"Well, my mom says Dukakis is better."
"Well, your mom's wrong then!"
"Nuh-uh! Your mom's wrong!"
As you can see, we had already reached the same level of discourse as some adults, except their more grown-up method would focus on who's stupider, not who's better. ;-)
So here are two scanned items from my Box o' Stuff:
I'd like to note that while my mom has indeed supported Democratic candidates all my life, my dad is a Libertarian and the rest of his family are Republicans, so I did get to hear multiple perspectives growing up.
Here's the text of a note dated 12-1-89. In the Box o' Old Stuff, I found several scraps on which my mom had jotted down something interesting that my sister or I had said. Here was my favorite:
Jessie—Comment on Switzerland
J: Why can't all countries be like that—not fighting?
(Mom): How did you know about that?
J: I read it in my atlas.
I loved that atlas so! It is on the shelf right behind me as I write this, coverless after so much use.
In April 1989, I read a book called something like "If You Could Ask the President a Question," and then decided to write my own. (The Montessori method, by the way, says you're not supposed to correct kids' spelling; my teacher wrote the comment at the top and left the rest alone, which I've come to believe is the best way of encouraging little kids to write.)
See? I knew Hurricane Katrina was coming. We really should listen to seven-year-olds.
And speaking of natural disasters....
My very first continuing character was a girl named Cutey Taffy. (I didn't know where names came from in the summer of '89, so I just picked what sounded like a realistic name to me. :p ) Her first story was about a grape ice cream cone that grew to mammoth proportions after chemical tampering. She then starred in a stack of other books, mostly published on old computer printouts donated to the school as drawing paper by my dad, folded into booklets and stapled down the middle, filled with whatever amount of story would fit.
I was also the school's foremost expert on natural disasters. I read all the books the library had on tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, blizzards and volcanoes, which simultaneously fascinated and terrified me. I would scream and hide when I heard the beeping noise that announced a severe weather alert about to scroll across the bottom of the TV.
Naturally my characters got hit by disasters on a regular basis.
And so I present to you my masterwork. It was rewritten several times as the need arose, but this two-volume edition was written in spring 1990, when I was in the second grade.
And that's all I've found to share from the box for now. I hope you got a laugh or two out of it! :) Kids are fun, but older friends as kids are especially fun.