Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Tales of Fourth-Grade Love

Here's just a brief glimpse of (we hope) lots of treasures to come: a note from Mike S.*, my fourth and fifth grade boyfriend. Here's what I remember about Mike S.: he was super cute, with dark hair and dark eyes, but short--probably the shortest boy in our class. He wore a three piece suit with a red tie to our first day of school. (We didn't wear uniforms back then, but did have a strict dress code--even still, a three-piece suit stood out!) He got into trouble all the time. This was of great concern to the teachers at our small private school, since I was a goody-goody who never got in trouble. Classic case of good girl/bad boy syndrome. He tried so hard to be good and impress me, but couldn't resist getting into trouble. I would get mad at him when he would get in trouble and then he would apologize and be good for a while. Seriously. How funny is that? One time, my teacher even tried to talk me out of liking him. But I was smitten with this little guy, and the feeling was mutual. I have a whole stack of notes from him--notes like the one I'll post below.



Here's a transcript:

"Dear Heidi,

Everyone thinks I like melanie and rayna. But I don't, they like me. Do you like Chris? I've heard he likes you. I'm in big trouble because my father found out I drew a heart with your name above it like this. [Drawing of heart with arrow with "Heidi" above it]

Love, Mike"

Sweet, right? This must have come early on in our "relationship," when insecurities and jealousies ran high. I also love the Romeo and Juliet touch of an angry father. (If I remember correctly, his dad wanted him to concentrate on school, not girls.)

Anyway, our romance continued for about a year and a half, until he was (no joke) expelled from our small, Lutheran school for well...you wouldn't believe me if I told you...

*Last name withheld to protect his identity--and because, although I remember how to pronounce it, I sure can't remember how to spell it.

5 comments:

Shannon said...

ok... too cute....but, makes me jealous since I didn't have a boy toy back then. oh well.... I don't think I would have wanted one anyway!

AMT said...

The whole thing is just too cute!

You have to tell us why he was expelled. No fair dropping that without an explanation.

I am very impressed that he wrote his letter in cursive; that is a pretty big accomplishment for a fourth grader.

Why does it look so crumpled? Did you ball it up and throw it across the room in a fourth-grade fit of jealousy?

Heather said...

Heidi
Thanks for making me laugh. I also started thinking about my fourth grade love... Jason. Well, need I say more? We all know what happened with that one!
I agree with Amber. I want to know why Mike was expelled.
I am looking forward to seeing more "treasures" from your childhood!

Dr. Burt said...

He got in trouble with his dad ... there you go Heidi ... always getting the menfolk in trouble.

I enjoyed bowling with the milk bottles today. Heather and I seem to be more into them than "WillWill" at the moment.

Heidi said...

Shannon--don't be too jealous. I think that my romantic life peaked back in fourth grade.

I am not sure why the letter looks so crumpled. It *is* kind of old, but that doesn't explain it enough. I think it was also crammed in the bottom of my backpack for sometime. (I was a very messy kid, believe it or not.) I also have this foggy memory of my brother Ryan finding and messing with all of the notes from Mike. (He was such a mean brother back then.) Finally, for some strange reason, it was separated from the rest of them in my closet (like it fell out somehow?). Maybe all of those reasons can explain the condition of the note.

As for why he got expelled, well...maybe I'll explain that later. Stay tuned!

Burt--glad you and Heather are enjoying the farm yard bowling. It took all my willpower (no pun intended) not to take them out and play with them myself.