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Grades One to Five (4)

Submitted by Ken Watts on Mon, 02/25/2008 - 15:40

WHEN I WAS RELEASED to go home from the hospital I could not walk or bend my back.

The Dr. advised my parents to keep me in bed or on a couch and not let me attempt to play for fear I would overdo and cause more damage.

Eventually, I was allowed to get down on the floor and crawl. As time went by I was allowed to get on my feet—but I could only shuffle along by getting one foot halfway in front of the other. I still could not bend my back.

My shuffles got longer and longer until I could take short steps. I don't recall how long it was until I finally could walk in a normal manner. I do remember when I was first able to bend my back.

I was playing with a little truck. I had tied a string to it so I could pull it. The string was longer than I wanted it to be—so without thinking I simply bent over and put the string under my foot and broke it off.

After I straightened up I realized what I had done and went racing excitedly to my mother to tell her the news.

I don't recall how many months I was out of school, but I did return before the school year was over and was promoted to the next grade along with my classmates.

From a casual observer's view I completely recovered. However, there are lingering symptoms I have recognized throughout the years and as time progresses certain effects become more apparent.

The only other recollection I have of the second grade is the teacher asking us to draw a cat in art class.

Most of us drew some kind of a figure (or disfigure) with a head, four legs and a tail.

However, one student (Billie Schenck) simply drew two circles on top of each other. The bottom circle was large the top circle small. He drew some ears, eyes, a nose and a mouth on the top circle and a tail on the bottom circle.

The result was sort of a Garfield image.

The teacher selected his drawing as the best. I was impressed and wished I could draw like that.