In 2006 I began writing this blog, as a way to keep my family in touch with what was going on here, as several loved ones live far away and we don't get to see each other or speak as often as I'd like. But once the kids left for college, I've felt I had little to write about and I lost some of that interest in writing.
However, this prompting to journal about my own life's stories made sense to me. I love the biography that my mom has written about my dad's life--even though it is still under construction. I already love knowing those stories he has entertained me with over all these years are recorded and written down and that I will be able to share them with my own grandchildren someday down the road. What if my own children want to know things about me that I never thought to tell them? What will the do with the gaps in my journaling? To answer those kinds of questions, I have decided to adopt a Sunday afternoon activity of writing on one short topic based on these kinds of questions:
Goals & Achievements
What goals do you hope to achieve this year?What is something you taught yourself to do without help from anyone else?
What goals are you actively working toward right now?
What would you want your friends and family to learn about making and achieving goals from your example?
What will be the greatest achievement of your life?
Love & Friendship
Do you know the story of how your grandparents met and fell in love?What have been the most important and valued friendships in your life?
Who was your first best friend? Are you still in contact with each other?
What qualities in friends do you most admire?
Goals & Achievements
What were your favorite hobbies and pastimes in your childhood?Do you like to dabble in lots of different hobbies? If so, what are they?
What hobbies, interests, and talents do you have in common with your parents, grandparents, and other ancestors?
Who taught you how to work? What would you want your children and grandchildren to learn from your example?
What are some of your greatest career achievements so far?
Home & Hearth
What was your childhood home like?What kinds of things did you collect and display in your childhood bedroom?
How many different homes or apartments have you lived in throughout your life?
What do you love most about where you live now?
What are the barest essentials you would need to make any place a home?
Mothers & Motherhood
How has your mother or being a mother enriched your life?What lessons have you learned from your grandmothers’ life experiences?
What are some of the stories you loved hearing from your mother’s youth? From your grandmothers’ younger days?
What is the best thing about your relationship with your mother or grandmother?
Who are some important mother figures besides your own mother who have been influential in your life?
Fathers & Fatherhood
What did you enjoy doing with your father when you were a child?What life lessons have you learned from your father?
What are some of the stories you loved hearing from your father’s youth? From your grandfathers’ younger days?
What are some of the signature phrases, quotes, or sayings that remind you of your dad? Of your grandfathers?
Who are some important father figures besides your own father who have been influential in your life?
Events & Milestones
What do you know about the day you were born?What were the biggest momentous events in your life and how have they changed you as a person?
What decisions have you made that have had a long-lasting positive effect on your life?
How does your family celebrate significant milestones?
What events and milestones are you still anticipating and looking forward to?
Travels & Vacations
What were your most common childhood vacations like—road trips, visits to grandma’s house, camping trips, weekends at the lake or the beach?Do you have one special vacation spot that you return to again and again? What do you love about it?
What are all the different modes of transport you’ve used?
What are the most memorable meals or exotic foods you’ve tried on any of your travels?
What destinations are on your vacation wish list?
Education & School
Who was your most beloved teacher? Why?What are your memories of school lunch?
What subjects did you excel at in school? Which were hardest for you?
What extracurricular activities did you get involved in?
What valuable lessons have you learned from school that have helped you in your life?
Values & Beliefs
If you had to pinpoint three main values that your parents lived by and tried to instill in you, what would they be?What personal values do you hold most dear?
What values do you feel are most important to pass down to posterity?
What were the faith and religious traditions of your ancestors?
Causes & Convictions
What motto or creed do you live by?In what ways do you sacrifice your time to volunteer in your community?
How has your life been enriched by your commitment to causes?
Is there someone in your life who has inspired you to care more about community and global issues?
How has your commitment to make the world a better place evolved throughout your life?
Holidays & Traditions
What were some of your favorite holiday traditions in childhood?Which were your top three favorite holidays when you were a child? Why?
Which of your childhood holiday traditions have you continued into adulthood?
What are the most memorable and treasured gifts you have received in your life?
What different occasions do you celebrate each year?
So beginning with the random question of the week, I'll try to share things that I may not have included in my personal journals over the years.
What are my memories of school lunch?
I attended elementary school at El Roble Elementary in Gilroy, California, from 1st through 4th grade. I think I remember generally bringing a lunch with me from home most of the time. I do recall a few special occasions when the school served a McDonald's hamburger or cheeseburger and those were the days I really wanted to buy lunch. I only remember the little McD's cheeseburger--not a happy meal or having fries with it. Just the little burger, wrapped in the the same old yellow paper they still come in, and a carton of chocolate milk. I'm sure it was less than a dollar for that at the time. I only remember ever having coins to pay for it. But it was a special treat when I got to do that.
We'd eat our little lunches on benches that were along the outside of the classroom buildings. I recall playing jacks with friends after eating right there near our benches on the blacktop. Jessica Santana was my best friend in those years. She was always very tall and willowy while I was pretty stumpy and rounder. I remember people calling us "Green Giant and Little Sprout" after the advertisement characters for the frozen vegetable company.
In 5th and 6th grade I moved schools to Brownell Fundamental Elementary in town. It was a lot like charter schools are now. It was supposed to focus on educational basics, but as a kid I didn't see much change from what I knew at El Roble. Just the kids thought the school was better than the other "regular" elementary schools. That attitude rubbed me wrong even then.
I remember learning to play handball during lunch there and slowly realizing that the boys who played handball weren't going to just "let the girls play" with them. I don't recall the lunch room or what I brought for lunch there beyond having to eat inside if there was rain. the lunch room had tall ceilings and was really loud with that many kids inside wishing they could play outdoors.
For junior high I moved schools again--even though Brownell had 7th & 8th grades. the friends I had at Brownell told me that if I switched to South Valley Jr High I was going to get beat up every day and that the Mexican kids would hate me because I was white. But I missed my El Roble friends and was not as fond of the elitist feeling among the Brownell kids. So I moved schools in Junior High.
South Valley was a little tougher looking, but I loved it. Sure there were some tough "chicano" kids in the school, but if I didn't bother them, I learned that they really didn't go out of their way to bother me. In fact, once I go to know a few in my classes, I made friends with them just like I could with the student council kids, or the jocks, or the music kids. They just had different interests and that was fine by me.
At SVJH we ate lunch outside, pretty much wherever we wanted. We didn't really have assigned spaces, but we ate with friends outside--again, unless it rained. In the rain we ate in the "cafegymetorium"--part lunchroom, part gym, part auditorium. It was REALLY loud then, because we were all pubescent, hormonal, growing pre-teens. I remember my favorite place to sit and eat outside was in the sunshine, just beyond the bus turn around toward the classrooms. A bunch of cute boys (some in our LDS ward) ate closer to the gym, but we could watch the boys from our spot in the sunshine. I'm quite sure the boys were clueless that we watched them everyday. But it was all part of the junior high fun.
In 9th grade we all moved to the high school. When I was in school, Gilroy High School had an open campus so if you had a car--or knew someone who did--you could go off campus to get lunch someplace. By this time, I think my mom gave up on us taking lunch so she'd give us lunch money to get lunch all week long. I had to ration it correctly or by Friday I wouldn't have money to eat. There were "junk trucks" that parked along the street side of campus and sold everything from hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill to soda and candy bars. I very regularly had a Snickers bar and a Diet 7Up for lunch and called it good. Once in a while I remember walking to my friend Steve Howlett's house, just a few blocks away from GHS, and having lunch with friends there. I loved his mom, Diane, and I especially loved it when she was there and I could chat her up about whatever was on my mind.
Usually the LDS kids and other friends hung out in Mr. Merrill's room. He was an old world history & geography teacher that didn't seem to mind the "crazy Mormon" kids invading his space. As I got older in high school, I'd sometimes have lunch in the theater--we had Mime Troupe meetings then. Or out on the quad with the "popular" and "cool" kids if there was a lunchtime activity. Once I could drive, I would sometimes take friends to Wendy's down 10th Street closer to the freeway. I remember thinking then that we never had enough time to get there, get our food, get back and eat all in the lunch period.
Once memorable lunch time as a Senior, I road in the bed of Brenda Scariot's truck with several other girls, who were much cooler and popular than I was, and we drive all the way to 1st Street's Senior Froggy's. David Manson had a truck full of senior boys and did the same thing. We grabbed our lunch as fast as we could and then high tailed it back to campus. Somewhere along the way, a chocolate shake got throw from David's truck over the cab of Brenda's--she was driving right behind Dave--and the spray of chocolate shake went all over many of us. At the time it was just funny. No one was angry or upset. Just another fun, crazy high school memory made.
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