As I attended elementary school, I was a very shy kid, terrible at sports. My brother Gary and I would attend Paradise Hills Elementary School. I was just not liking playing with the other kids. I would never go on the swing after one day I tried it and fell on my face. I never went on a swing ever since.


When I was in second grade, I would win a Good Citizen of the Month award. Later on, for those who had won good citizen of the first few months would get to go to an assembly, eat some cookies, and watch a special presentation.


In third grade, I won my second Good Citizen of the Month award. Again, I was able to attend an assembly with other previous winners.


Sometime after January, we moved to a new house, and that meant Gary and I had to transfer to another elementary school. It was Robert E Lee Elementary School. So I would finish third grade there.


Fourth grade the interesting as we had a teacher named Ms. Light. She was into the late 1960s and early 1970s music and art craze. Sure, we would learn math, spelling and reading as per required, but we were also introduced to the music of the Doors, Joy of Cooking, Leon Russell, and of course, The Beatles (the white album).


During Christmas, we would learn to sing Nat King Cole's rendition of "ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS MY TWO FRONT TEETH". I would lead them in the singing.


Most of all, we would make up our own plays to perform in front of the class. I kissed a female classmate.


In fifth grade was my most difficult as my shyness gave me a poor grade in oral language skills. However, the good news was that I was so good with multiplication that I always finish before the five-minute time limit.


Now I had three different six-grade teachers because the first one was a substitute, and she lasted two months before she went on maternity leave. Our second teacher was Mrs. Pizer, who used to be a fifth-grade teacher. She lasted two months and finally, our original teacher, Mr. Hallick, returned after recovering from a heart attack. He'd go to sixth grade camp at Cuyamaca with us. At the end of the school year, he would retire.