I liked the way that Mr. Burkhart taught science, he made it very interesting. I made bets with him, for I thought sure that I was right. But every time I would bet him, I turned out to be wrong. I also liked when Mr. Burkhart played the guitar. And every one of us would play our own instrument. I played the maraca. There was a little song that we made up, and it went like this:
"Redwood School is hip, and it's on a real bad trip". Of course we couldn't sing that in front of Mrs. Woods, but we thought that it was still funny.
Mrs. Woods came up with this idea. The students that needed more help than others would now be moved to Mr. Hunkermoeller's classroom when school started up again after summer vacation was over in 1971. It would be a small classroom where I was with Mrs. White in the old Redwood School building.
Mr. Edward Hunkermoeller was nice also. Ricky Nickles did not stay in the classroom very long with us. He wanted to be in the workshop with Mrs. Moraski. I really don't know how much Ricky could learn. Mary Stapelton didn't stay in the classroom very long either. She moved down to the workshop. Mary started at Redwood School at the age of 2, and she is still at the workshop, learning how to use a computer. When I couldn't type down my answers, because they had to be in a book, Mary Stapelton, Marie Miller, Sherry Steeley or a volunteer (if we had one) would write down the answers, as I said them.
Marie Miller only got to stay a year in Mr. H's classroom. She lived in a nursing home, and now they were moving her to a nursing home in Dry Ridge, Kentucky. At first Marie and I used to fight a lot, but as time went on, we became good friends. I hated to see Marie move away, but I did go and see her. Marie made up the name Mr. H. It was a lot easier to say than his whole name.
Keith Henderson was in a wheelchair, and at the time I didn't really know Keith very well. In fact, I didn't even know that he could talk plain. Keith could understand me very well.
Then there was Gary Heidrick. He was very slow and in a wheelchair and he had a very bad speech problem. Although he could read and write very slow, some times Mr. H. would ask me to read the questions to him. Then he would mark the answers down in his book. Gary liked to laugh a lot, and he had a great since of humor.
Lee Wright would not talk at all when he first came to Redwood School. Mrs. Moraski would work with Lee until he learned how to talk. Lee wore two hearing aids and had a speech problem. After Lee came into our classroom he would not shut up!
Sherry Steeley joined our classroom, and I was glad. When I needed or wanted something, I just told her. One day Mr. H. wanted Marie and me to teach Sherry how to write a poem. I really don't think that Sherry knew what a poem even was, let alone try to write one. Sherry just couldn't understand what a poem was. Sherry started to cry. Then I looked over at Marie, and she was crying for some reason. I said, "Marie". Then when she saw Sherry crying, she stopped and helped me with Sherry. I had always gotten through to Sherry, but this one time I could not. I felt like I had failed Sherry.
When school resumed after summer vacation,1972 there would only be Sherry, Keith, Gary, Lee and myself.
When school resumed again in 1972, I couldn't find my weight to hold my right arm down while typing. I no longer needed my left arm strapped down nor needed a pencil to type with. I had gained enough control to hold my left arm down, and in time, I also gained enough control to type with just my left index finger. I don't know what happened to my weight, so I held on to my pants to keep it down. When I didn't have my braces on, I just put my hand between my legs, and crossed them. Of course every time that Sister Frances saw me with my legs crossed, she would yell at me. She thought that by crossing my legs, I would make my left dislocated hip worse. I didn't pay any attention to her. In fact, when I saw Sister Frances coming, I just uncrossed my legs until she left the area.
At every parent conference meeting with Mrs. Woods and my teachers, this is mostly what they complained about, crossing my legs. But I paid "NO ATTENTION" to them or to Mom and Dad. According to Mrs. Woods, she thought that I should have the leaders cut inside my legs, like some of the other kids had done. One day Mrs. White came and took me to Mrs. Woods office. It was conference day with Mom and Dad. When Mrs White took me in the office Mrs. Woods said, "do you want your legs operated on"? I just said one word, "NO" and there wasn't any more talks about operations. But I had to still watch out for Sister Frances.
Just about every child in Redwood had the leaders cut inside their legs. Now this was supposed to make their legs better. But when I saw my classmates after they came back to school, I did not see any difference at all, in their legs, or the way that they walked. I knew that the answer to my dislocated hip was not having the leaders cut, it sure wouldn't keep my dislocated hip from going out every time I straightened my leg out. The kids that had this operation done, their legs were stiff before and after the operations. This was just another one of Mrs. Woods rules, that every parent and child went by. The parents said, "NO" to Mrs. Woods, except for "ME"!
I still had reading class with Mrs. White after I moved to Mr. H's. classroom. Sherry would usually take me to Mrs. White's room, that was my first class of the day. And although Mary Stapelton had moved down to the workshop, she still came up for reading class in Mrs. White's room. I remember one morning Mary and I shared a reading book together, and I got finished reading the page before Mary did. I thought that she was almost finish reading the page, so I sat there and waited.I finally looked at Mrs. White and shook my head, Mrs. White gave me a reading book and sat it on a stand, so I could finish my reading.
Mary Stapelton started Redwood School at the age of 2. I really don't remember when Mary and I started in the same classroom together. But Mary and I became good friends. Some time Mary would write down the answers for me in my school book, as I told her to. Mary understood me very well. Mary walked with canes. One day Mary was standing in front of my footrest and all of the sudden she lost her balance and fell backwards and hit herself on the end of my footrest. You talk about scared, I WAS! I really thought that she had hurt herself. I can still see her falling on the edge of footrest to this day. Everybody with crutches sometimes would loose their balance, and even some that weren't walking with crutches fell. But how does a person ever get used to seeing somebody else fall? I never could get used to seeing this over and over again.
Sometimes Mr. H. would be a little late, so I would fill out the lunch slip. Then Sherry and I would take it up to the office. I knew what kind of work Mr. H gave Lee, Keith and Gary, so I had Sherry help me make out their school work, and gave them their work. Mr. H. was so surprised and shocked one morning when he came into the classroom. He was very pleased with my work that I did and how quiet everybody was. The only one that ever made any noise was Lee Weight. All he ever did was talk, make noise, and disturb the rest of us, who were trying to do our work. We all kept telling Lee to shut up, which he would not do. Sherry had a very quite voice, but I couldn't help but laugh when she told him to shut up. Then she would turn her hearing aid off or down, so she didn't have to hear Lee's mouth going.
Sometimes I would need help with something, and I would tell Sherry, so she would hold up her finger that meant "wait a minute". And there would be times when I was busy doing my work, and I could see Sherry would need help with her work. I would watch her out of the corner of my eye while I was doing my work, and then she would give me that innocent look, so I would finally quit what I was doing and help her.
One day Sherry was trying to tell Mr. H. something but he didn't understand her. I knew what Sherry was saying without paying any attention to her. I said to Mr. H."you can't even understand your own student". We both cracked up laughing.
... Chapter Five