I was born in 1964. I turned 1 in 1965. I don't have any memories of life in 1965.What I do know is that my sister turned 2 in June , I turned 1 in September at the time that my Mom was pregnant with my younger brother who was born in March of 1966. By the end of 1965 My Das was 27, my Mom was 26, my sister 2 and I was one. . I am now 59 years old so I am older now than the combined age of my entire family in 1965.
In The Spring of 1989 I took a class, I forget what the actual name and course # was but the gist was that it was the course where education majors got their pre-student teaching experience. Over the course of the semester you travel to a school, are assigned a teacher and a class room and you observe and assist in the class room culminating in preparing and giving a lesson essentially being teacher for a day. I forgot how many visits it was it was either 6 0r 12 in a 6 week period.
I got to know the students pretty well, and one of them was going to be in a local theater play. I told him that I would attend. Back than my wardrobe was pretty exclusively jeans t-shirts and I had a pretty good sweater collection. I had one suit and a few dress shirts and a couple pairs of slacks. Each day I would go to school, I would wear the same outfit, my suit. I would then go back to the dorm and put it away until the next class. When I went to the play I was wearing my regular out fit of Jeans, Turtle Neck and Sweater.
The play was really good. It was Agatha Christies Mouse Trap and my student did an excellent job. I went up to him after the show and the first thing this kid (who by my math is now 50ish) says to me: "Mr. Roller, You're in civilian clothes!"
I was thinking of that story today, because my youngest daughter has a starring part in her school play. I wore Jeans and the show t.shirt to school today and wore the same thing to the production. I don't think I've ever worn a suit to teach school. I guess I just wear civilian clothes.
1993 Foreign Soil.
From Late 1992 to Late 1994 I lived in Russia. 1993 was the only year in my life that I was not in the United States at all. I embraced life in Russia and did not have much culture shock at all, It wasn't until I got home that I realized the impact of missing an entire year of American culture. I was able to keep up with the really important things like the Bulls Threepeat. I heard most of the major developments.
But even as recently as this week when I was watching Dave with relatives. Someone asked what year it came out and I didn't know. I can usually recall the year a movie came out by remembering what was going when I saw it. For example, I remember Ferris Buellers Day off came out in 1986 because I watched it with fellow camp counselors from Camp Manitoqua and I worked at Camp Manic Toga in the summer of 86. I remember Ordinary People came out in 1980 because we were reading the book in my sophomore English class and the class took a field trip to go see it. Dave came out in 1993. I didn't see it in the theatre so I have no reference point to the year.
The same is true about sports, t.v. and news of that period. In the 30 years since I've come home from Russia there have been multiple gaps in my shared experiences with others because of the disparity of our 1993s
Don't misunderstand me. This is not a bad thing, It's been kind of like found money. On Spotify I am often discovering albums that came out in 1993 or 1994 that I never was aware of and enjoy discovering them 30 years later.
My years in Russia were the best 2 years of my life to that point. I made lasting friendships, did worthwhile work, and was stretched in many ways. I may not have been in the U.S. in 1993 but I certainly had found a home.
2013: The Beginning of the year of limericks
I turned 49 in the year 2013. I remember going with my wife and kids to the Cook County forest preserve in Elk Grove where there is actually, wait for it, a grove of elk. We were hanging out watching elk, climbing trees, and having all kind of birthday fun when an idea came to me. For the rest of the year, I would write a limerick each day and post it on Facebook for all to see.
Eventually the task got a little much for me and I did not write 365 limericks that year, but I wrote well over 200. While my limericks never quite went viral, I am sure a few of them made a number of my friends, family and acquaintances sick.
The year of limericks was a bit of a turning point for me in a few ways:
While I have dabbled in poetry along with other kinds of writing and studied poetry while obtaining a degree in English, I never considered myself more than an occasional poet. The limerick experimented jump started this part of my writing.
Facebook has become a curator of my limericks. Thanks to Facebook memories my limericks from 2013-2014 pop up on the anniversary of the day I wrote them. The November 7th 2013 popped up again today. It is about knock knock jokes.
While knock knock who's there jokes are lawful
