BETRAYED BY A FRIEND

During my ten years in Elementary School, I had several best friends. Obviously, I failed two grades, but I also attended four different schools. I lost friends because I changed schools, and I lost friends because they changed schools. I also lost friends both times I failed a grade and they moved up. We were no longer in the same room, and in a few cases, we went to lunch and recess at different times, and just grew apart.

When I was in the first grade at a school called Gift, my best friend was named Vivian. She was a tomboy and wasn’t afraid of a little dirt, or water. When I had to repeat the first grade, she move on to the second and we didn’t get to hang out together as much, and we both made new friends. Then the school closed down and she went to Kossuth and I went to Union Center.

My best friend there was Samuel. We were in the same class, and we hung out together at recess and ate lunch together every day. We were both right-handed, but I never really thought much about it at all. I knew there were left-handed people and right-handed people. That’s just the way it was. Then one day, we were sitting at the table in the lunchroom, and just out of the blue, he suggested that we both start using our left hands to eat, as he picked up some spaghetti with his fork using his left hand. I tried it and found it to be a bit difficult, but I figured I could adapt with a little practice. Then he suggested we start doing everything left-handed. I said "okay," and that’s what we did for the rest of the year.

Soon, Summer break came, which lasted about four months in those days. We didn’t see each other all that time, and when school started back, he moved on to the sixth grade and I had to repeat the fifth. Later that year, his family moved to California. They moved back a few years later and he went to Kossuth.

When I graduated from elementary school, I went to the high school at Kossuth, and there was Samuel. I didn’t get to see him much, because we were in different grades and the school was so big, and I was only there for a few months, but to my surprise, he was still using his left hand to eat. I had given that up years ago and hadn’t really thought much about it. It was a bit difficult, and without him there to encourage me, I just went back to what was comfortable.

When I failed the fifth grade, and Samuel moved on, he wasn’t the only one. All my classmates moved up to the sixth grade. The new school year began with a whole room full of new people coming from the fourth grade. That’s when I met Randy and we became best friends. A few years later, when we were in the seventh grade, he suggested that we both come to school the next day with our hair parted in the middle. I was reluctant, but I finally agreed to do it.

When I got home, I went into the bathroom and started messing with my hair to see what it would look like parted in the middle. I’ve never liked change as far back as I can remember, and when it came to my hair, that was especially true. I always kept my hair neat, and I didn’t want anyone to touch it. I even wore hairspray from my mid-teens into my thirties. Many people thought I was vain, and probably thought I was stuck up, or full of myself, but it was just the opposite. I’ve never, in my life, thought that I was handsome or good-looking. Never. I didn’t think I was ugly, but I knew I was not good-looking, so I tried my best to look as nice as I possibly could, with my clothes and hair, because I knew that’s all I had.

Anyway, I didn’t quite like the way my new hairstyle made me look that day after school, but I had told Randy I would do it, so the next morning when I got ready for school, I parted my hair in the middle. I kept messing with it and looking at it, but I just couldn’t leave it like that. I was already shy and self-conscious enough about my looks, and I couldn’t take a chance on making myself look worse, so I chickened out. So, just before the bus came, I quickly fixed my hair back the way I had been wearing it for the last few years; the way I was comfortable wearing it. Then, I got on the bus.

When the bus stopped at Randy’s house, he got on and sat down beside me with his new hairstyle. It actually looked good on him. He didn’t pressure me too much about not changing mine and never mentioned it again after that week, as far as I can remember. He just went right on wearing his fly-back hairdo.

Looking back, I feel bad about agreeing with my friends to do something and not following through with it. Those things may seem trivial but I went back on my word. I’m thankful they forgave me and didn’t hate me for it. I’m sorry I let you guys down. Thank you both for your continued friendship.

Friendship is something special. There are many good quotes and expressions out there about friendship, and there are several variations to many of them. The first one that comes to my mind is "To have a friend, you must be a friend." I’ve heard that one for as long as I can remember, and you probably have, too. Did you know it comes from the Bible? Proverbs 18:24 says, "A man that has friends must be friendly, and there is a friend that sticks closer than a brother."  

Friendship is important for many reasons. We need friends to encourage us, comfort us, and hold us accountable in certain aspects of life. Studies have even shown that friendship has positive effects on both emotional and physical health. To make friends, we have to be friendly. To keep friends, we have to be a friend. We have to be honest and reliable. That means keeping our word when at all possible. If for some reason, we can’t do something we have agreed to do, then we need to let our friends know. That’s just common courtesy and should be extended to everyone, not just friends.

We also need to be willing to forgive our friends (and others) when they hurt us, just as we would want them to forgive us if we hurt them. In Matthew 7:12, Jesus gave us what many call the "Golden Rule." He basically said, "Treat others like you want them to treat you." If every person in the world would do that, the world would be a better place to live. If you agree, then put it into practice. As we treat others with kindness and respect, they’ll do the same for us, and for others, and it will spread. It has to start somewhere.

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GIFT SCHOOL

Recently, I drove by the first school I ever attended, or where it once was. It was demolished some time ago. Other than an old tree, all that’s left is part of the basketball court, and it’s almost covered with grass. It was simply called Gift. Although it had a Corinth, Mississippi address, I think the community was called Gift, so it was Gift School, but I’m not sure.

I went to Gift from Kindergarten through the third grade. It closed down the next year, citing there weren’t enough students enrolled that year to keep it open. I have a lot of memories from the few short years I attended there. Some are good, and some, not so much.

What I remember most is the people, the kids, and a few teachers I met there. I didn’t stop this time. I just slowly drove past where the school had been, then headed down the old bus route we had taken every day for those five years I was there. As I passed the homes of the many kids who rode the bus every day, I wondered what had become of them. Did they still live there? Were those newer houses theirs, or had they moved far away? Were they still alive? I don’t know. I haven’t seen most of them since the day the school closed.

I only remember one kid from Kindergarten. His name was Donnie. He would eat anything, and by anything, I mean anything that wasn’t food. I remember him eating glue, and modeling clay, just to name a few.

From the first grade, I remember Vivian. She was my best friend. I went to high school with her and got to work with her for a while, a few years back. Then there was Susanne. She was my first girlfriend, although, she didn’t know she was my girlfriend. I went to high school with her as well.

There was Jeffrey, who was quite a bit older than the other first graders. I don’t think he had ever been to school because he was blind. I liked him and considered him a friend. Most of us played with him and helped him get around outside at recess.

I remember a girl named Lynn. I remember the teachers talking about how smart she was. In the middle of the year, they advanced her to the second grade. I was a little jealous. Then I had to repeat first grade, and she passed to the third. She left me behind like I was sitting still. I was so mad at her for years.

An older student named Leroy would come to our classroom after lunch, occasionally, and sing to us for a while. One of the songs he would sing was “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown.” I thought he was Leroy Brown and did for years after. He had a good voice, by the way.

I remember coming into the classroom one Monday morning, and discovering it had been vandalized. There was trash everywhere, and our books had been thrown all over the room. Our pencils, crayons, and markers were everywhere. They were even in the fishbowl, and the fish were all dead. It was awful. It was scary, but what could we do? We cleaned it up and went about our day.

I’m not sure if I was in first, or second grade, but I remember playing in the woods during recess, and after lunch. Later, schools changed the word “recess” to “break,” but we called it recess. I remember building houses in the woods. We used the living trees for the frames, and dead, and smaller trees, and branches for the walls. We used branches with leaves for the siding and for the roof. We would cover the roof with dead leaves, and we even made doors on the houses. We played in and around the creeks, and brier patches. We played with moles, tadpoles, and bullfrogs. We had so much fun. Children from all different grades and ages played together there. Of course, there were some older students who were “too mature” for that sort of thing.

I remember a boy named Mark. His dad drove our bus for a while. My sister had a crush on him. They were king and queen of some contest we had for a Fall Festival or some kind of program. I think we were in the second grade, and it was winter. Several of us were playing on some ice in an old frozen pond in the woods. The ice broke, and Mark went under. He might have drowned if not for an older student named Bill. He reached right down into the water with his long arms and pulled Mark out and saved his life. 

Bill was a good friend, too. We had a lot of fun times with him. I’ll tell you more about him in a future post about some of my experiences in the four different elementary schools I attended growing up. I'll put a link at the bottom of this page.* Follow my blog, and get updates when I post new articles. Anyway, after Mark almost drowned, we weren’t allowed to play in the woods anymore. It wasn’t “safe.”

In the third grade, I started hanging out with a boy named Jerry. He wore thick glasses. He said it was because he had been stung between his eyes by a hornet when he was younger. The same exact thing had happened to me two or three summers earlier, but he didn’t believe me, because I didn’t have to wear glasses. I couldn’t make him believe me, so I didn’t waste my time trying.

One day Jerry and I were in the field behind the school, heading back from recess. His little brother Gary was with us. I said something about the woods being grown up since we had not played there in a long time. They both thought I had said a curse word, even though I hadn’t. One of them went and told the teacher, and I got into trouble. I recently heard that Jerry had passed away. I pray that God will bless his family in their time of grief.

There was a red-headed girl named Patty. She reminded me of Peppermint Patty from the Peanuts Gang. There was a kid named Tim who went crazy in the auditorium when he saw Santa Claus get out of a car, and head toward us. I went to calm him down, and we became friends. His mom would bring us toys from time to time after that. I just saw her a couple of weeks ago, and talking to her brought back a lot of memories.

There was a girl named Tina. She sat a can of soda down for a few minutes while she was playing. There were yellow Jackets flying around where we were. When she took another drink, she swallowed one that had crawled inside the can. You can imagine what happened.

Another girl named Michelle was out of school for a while. When she came back she told us she had one of her tonsils taken out. They were both really bad, but she only had to have one removed because the other one just came out by itself. She said she just spit it out on the porch one morning.

I don’t remember everybody who went to school at Gift during the few years I did, but the ones I do remember, I have mostly good memories of them. The teachers, and the students I met there, all affected my life in some sort of way, and I’m glad to have known each one of them.

*Bill, In The Woods, With The Rope

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If you ever attended Gift school, I’d like to connect with you on Facebook, or by email. Maybe you can share a few of your own memories, and pictures if you have any. Thanks for reading. Looking forward to hearing from you.

Email: teddylynn@mail.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100004563978108 

Twitter: TeddyLynn10

Note: Although it looks a bit like what I remember, the picture for this post is not of Gift School. Sorry, I don’t have one. If you do, please share it with me. Thanks.

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My Blogs
https://teddylynn.blogspot.com
https://teddylynn.wordpress.com

© 2016 Teddy Lynn – All Rights Reserved

My books are available in paperback and digital format on Amazon @ 
https://www.amazon.com/Teddy-Lynn/e/B01MZDB6L6