Joining John Holton’s Writer’s Workshop again this week.
Thanks for the opportunity, John!
Prompts:
- Write a post based on the word grudges.
- Write a post in exactly 13 lines.
- Write about something you learned in February.
- List your five favourite snack foods.
- Tell us about the worst haircut you ever had.
- What are the five things you enjoyed doing the most when you were in sixth grade? Do you still enjoy doing them?
I went with #6.
SIXTH GRADE WAS SEPT. 1965 – JUNE 1966
I was living in Germany at the time, ages 10 & 11.
I lived a double life.
Canadian army brat during the week, German girl on the weekends. Every Friday, we went shopping at the Canex (army stores) for my grandparents (groceries, cigarettes and alcohol were much cheaper there), then spent the weekend with them.
It was only an hour’s drive away, and their large apartment had plenty of room.
1. LOVE OF MUSIC
My appreciation for music started early, around age 3 or 4. Then in 1963, I discovered The Beatles, and in 1965, The Rolling Stones. I also took piano lessons from 1963 – 67, and guitar lessons from 1966 – 67. I no longer play, but learned a lot about music in the process.
Relatives in Germany owned a large pub which had a huge jukebox in it. I spent countless hours there, listening to music of all genres in different languages. At home, there was the small, leather-clad transistor radio and portable record player, which both got a lot of use.
My love of music has only increased over the years, taking on a harder edge.
Give me drama and intense emotions. 💥 And rock concerts! They are my “Fountain of Youth”. 🤘
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2. SPENDING TIME WITH MY GERMAN FAMILY
Those years in Germany were the happiest of my childhood, which was mostly dysfunctional. Spending weekends and holidays with relatives put everyone on their best behaviour!
My grandparents threw wonderful house parties, and we also visited the many aunts, uncles and cousins on a regular basis. Every Sunday, we went out for lunch, followed by the ritualistic “Kaffee und Kuchen” (coffee and cake) later in the afternoon.
That all stopped when we moved to Canada in 1969, except for three summer visits, 1970 – 72.
It took me 41 more years to return after that. By then, many relatives had died and others had scattered.
3. READING
Between the ages of 10 and 14, I was a voracious reader of mostly crime novels, in both English and German. My grandparents had a large collection of paperback “Krimis”, and I borrowed many more from the army base library. I read all of Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels, the entire Agatha Christie catalogue, and others, like Ed McBain’s 87th Precinct series, and Georges Simenon’s Inspector Maigret books.
This habit continued into adulthood, where my tastes gravitated to thrillers by authors like Dean Koontz, Stephen King and Anne Rice. I also read a lot of historical fiction and biographies.
Non-fiction is my preferred genre these days, but I have to admit,
since getting hooked on blogging, most of the books I’ve acquired remain unread.
😳
4. WRITING
As an only child, I had a lot of time to myself and, from a young age, enjoyed writing short stories, plays and poems. In grade six, I had a “girl crush” on Superman’s sidekick, Lois Lane, and dreamt of becoming a journalist like her. Other dreams included writing an Oscar-winning screenplay, and becoming a published author.
In the early 1970s, I studied Journalism & Mass Communications, but didn’t care for the idea of writing according to assignment. So much for becoming a reporter! I still wanted to be a published author of some sort though, took a couple of Creative Writing correspondence courses, and started submitting my work.
Constant rejection wore me down, plus there were bills to pay, so I took a clerical job at a multi-national corporation. Exit aspiring author, enter ambitious corporate workaholic! Decades later, post-corporate career, I re-discovered the joys of writing via the Blogosphere, using those talents mostly for memoirs, reality-based fiction, and poetry.
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The writing muse has waned somewhat in recent years, with photography taking centre stage.
Still, every now and then, the spark re-ignites.
5. TRAVELLING
Living in Germany afforded my family many travel opportunities, and we took full advantage! Our first big excursion was for Easter Break in 1966 (two weeks). We visited Tyrol, Austria, where my aunt and uncle owned a hotel and café in the ski resort town of Mayrhofen. It was a nine-hour drive, and I loved the adventure of it all! Thus, my wanderlust was born.
My husband and I have covered a lot of ground over the years, but our last big trip was in 2018.
Between COVID, decreased amenities, and increased costs, we’re sticking closer to home these days.
But, if we ever win the lottery… 😉
To view all participants’ entries, and/or join the workshop, visit John:
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Dog Mom and (retired) Canine Innkeeper in suburban Toronto, Canada, known as The Doglady. Former corporate workaholic. Writer, photographer, digital creator. Animal lover, music fanatic, inveterate traveller. Eternal hippie/rockchick. History, literature and cinema buff. Hockey and soccer fan. Dedicated night owl. German/Canadian binational, multilingual. Let me entertain you!
28 thoughts on “SIXTH GRADE ENJOYMENTS 🏫 | STILL FUN?🤔 #WritersWorkshop ✍️”
I see that you are very active woman when reading this post, that’s great👍
I was very active back then, Jean. 🙂 Leading a more mellow life now, though.
I think and I also see that you are pretty active nowadays too. You run your site with very rich and eclectic production and your site is exceptional you know 😊
I think I know you better after reading your list. I can also relate to your love of music, reading, and writing. My ex-husband and I traveled some with our kids, almost always in the US with an occasional trip to beautiful Canada. I wish we had gotten to travel more, but he traveled for work two weeks out of every month. I did not like being with family. Extended family wasn’t a pleasant distraction the way it was for you.
Love,
Janie
Thanks for coming by, Janie! 🙂 I was grateful for all the travel opportunities. The U.S. has many beautiful, interesting places too. My German family was gregarious, and there was always something going on.
Looks and sounds like you had a good time. Your German family looks like a fun bunch.
Those were truly the good old days, John! 🙂 My family loved to socialize.
Wow! Debbie, you had a busy and interesting childhood. When I was in the sixth grade, I took swimming lessons, tap dancing, and piano lessons. While I was in college, I took guitar lessons. Like you, I have always loved music. I feel music keeps you young and alive. Keep on keepin’ on, rocknroll sister! 😎🎶🎸
It was the best of times, Eugi. 🙂 Tap dancing – how fun! I took tap, ballet and jazz dancing at ages 7-9, before moving to Germany. You are SO right about music. It is definitely keeping us young! 🤘
A comment from my Facebook friend, JM:
Sixth grade was the year I got to take Shop class, it was forbidden for girls until just before I was able to have it as a class. I also did Home Economics. That was a weird one. We learned to make cupcakes in a microwave, of all things! They apparently had just been invented. I honestly never saw another microwave until I was an adult and already married a few years
I do like to sew, that’s what we did also. I made myself a pair of big bell jeans and a halter top and absolutely loved them. My mom had taught me to sew, knit, and crochet though as soon as I could hold the needles and reach the pedal on the sewing machine LOL I did all those things, plus sketching, cross stich, and other artsy things while younger, but honestly, those hobbies became expensive, so little by little I fell away and like most everyone I know, got sucked into the cyber world and hobbies no longer gained my attention after a while
Who knew that microwaves were around back then? And, I can relate to the cyber world becoming all-consuming! 😆
Living a double life! It sounds like you had a busy childhood, Debbie. Love the old family photos, and the snippets of your time spent with them.
It was a wonderful time in my life, Damyanti! 🙂 And to live simultaneously in two different cultures was a remarkable experience. Thanks for coming by.
Debbie, I like the retrospective on your 6th grade life and what you were doing back then. Unfortunately my 6th grade life was when we first moved here from Canada, but it wasn’t nice being a Canadian kid here in the US when the teacher laughed at my pronunciation and my classmates beat me up because I was different than them.
We often have things in common – it looks like you were taking piano lessons the same time I was taking accordion lessons, only I had to stop in 1966 when we moved here as there were no accordion lessons available. In the late 70s, I took guitar lessons but that was while I worked at the ad agency, inspired by the Creative Department writers and art directors that sat in one of their offices and they each had folk guitars. They would play Mason Williams’ “Classical Gas” and I mentioned it to my parents one day. They bought me a folk guitar for Christmas in 1978. I took lessons but the guy was more interested in talking about his band. I still have both instruments, unused for decades.
When I went to visit my father’s aunt and uncle (who raised him as a teenager as his parents were deceased), we traveled from Frankfurt, where they lived in an apartment, to Tyrol, Austria. I thought it was one of the prettiest places I’ve ever been and still do. We went hiking in the mountains with our wooden hiking sticks amongst the wildflowers. You moved to Canada in 1969 from Germany and I visited Germany in 1969 for the first time with my father and went back in 1979 with both my parents.
I’m sorry to say that I always thought I was an avid reader but I look at your list and sadly, I have not read one of those books. I admit that our school system for our city was terrible; we never read any of the classics and I never realized that until I got to college and I talked to other classmates and realized what they read and I hadn’t.
Also like you, I studied mass communications and journalism in college, although I never got a job because the market was flooded with investigative journalists by the time I graduated (because of Woodward and Bernstein and Watergate). I had a mentor at the ad agency who I thought the world of but he left after we lost our big account and so sadly I spent the rest of my working life not doing what I went to school for – but also, like you once again, blogging fulfilled that void.
Thanks for the insight into your 6th grade self Debbie I enjoyed it.
It is amazing how much you and I have in common, Linda! Before moving to Germany, we lived in London (Ontario), where I was terrorized by xenophobic bullies about my German heritage. Interesting that you also visited Tyrol! It is gorgeous there and I remember taking the Penkenbahn gondola to the top of the mountain. The sun was so beautiful and warm, people were skiing in bathing suits!
https://www.tyrol.com/activities/sport/hiking/mountain-lifts/penkenbahn-1
Too bad the ad agency job didn’t work out! I bet it was interesting, going by the TV series Mad Men. 🙂
Debbie, the similarities seem endless don’t they? People think bullying is something new … something originating from social media, but that is not true as you and I both know. I didn’t tell my parents for the longest time and it began in sixth grade (elementary school) and continued into seventh grade (junior high/middle school). I finally told my parents but not before the teacher routinely paddled me out in the hall for being different, but when she accused me of making prank and obscene phonecalls on Easter Sunday, I went to the counsellor and had him call both my parents for a meeting – she was suspended the rest of the year. The kids were horrible and I’ve never forgotten that time.
I did not take the gondola ride – it looks like it would have been fun. We stayed in a chalet, both times (1969 and 1979) – it was in the mountains and the cows would be herded out every morning at the crack of dawn. It was a bed and board and they had a little farm. I remember the 1979 trip more – it was in May and beautiful. We went up Grossglockner Mountain and in May there was still snow and it got colder the higher we went up the mountain – very beautiful. I have photos I took on the mountain.
It is fun in an ad agency, especially the Creative Department!
The similarities are amazing, Linda! 🙂 Bullying has been around forever – it’s not an invention of social media. Your teacher was a disgrace and I’m glad she got suspended! Children are so cruel, too. 😫
May in the Austrian Alps would be ideal. It was even nice when we were there at Easter time. I looked up the date for 1966 and saw it was in mid April. The gondola was a little scary – best not to look down! 😬
Yes, that’s true – bullying is cruel and my heart went out to the young boy with protruding teeth who was teased mercilessly about them and committed suicide last year. I wondered how his classmates felt – well probably they laughed or didn’t blame themselves. We’ve had teens that committed suicide because they didn’t have as many Facebook friends as other teens and felt “inferior” as they were teased about it. All senseless deaths due to bullying and peer pressure.
Yes, don’t look down, just straight ahead. I took a funicular ride once in Bergen, Norway? It was on the Scandinavian tour. It wasn’t a long trip, but it was a steep ascent and descent. Same … look up, don’t look down. 😉
Sounds like you had a great time!
Those were the best of times, John! 🙂
I so enjoyed your walk down memory lane to remember five things you enjoyed about youth in Germany, Debbie. I feel a kinship to you being an airforce brat myself living that nomadic lifestyle. We share so many of the same passions of writing and reading. I loved reading about your double life as a Canadian girl on weekdays and a German girl on weekends. Thanks for sharing about it. Makes me want to write something about grade 6 and 7 living on the base in Moose Jaw, which were my best school years before we moved to Ontario where grade 8 was one of my worst years ever. A real contrast!
We military brats certainly have a kinship, Cathy! 🙂 It was hard to always be the new kid in school, wasn’t it? That might be one reason we’re both so into solitary pursuits like reading and writing. If you ever write that childhood memoir, I’d love to read it. My elementary school experience in London, before we moved to Germany, was pretty bad too. I’m glad you enjoyed this post. Thanks for coming by!
You were lucky to have grown up with being Canadian and German at the same time and the experiences that offered, including being able to travel in Europe and being bilingual. Your German relatives were well-established in the hospitality industry, which reminded me of my aunt, who owned three pubs in London. Thanks for showing us more of your life story.
Best wishes, Pete.
Yes, there were definite advantages to my life’s circumstances (along with a few downsides, which I won’t go into here). My aunt and uncle’s pub was a wondrous place for a kid. 🙂 Did you spend time at your aunt’s pubs in London, Pete?
Yes, I was always in there on my days off, and every family occasion was celebrated there too.
Lovely memories!
That was an interesting life story and you’ve certainly been to many places. I did not see any way to zoom in on the map so I could not make out the details.
Thanks, Thomas. I have been around, for sure. 🙂 That is a copy of my Trip Advisor map and isn’t clickable, but here’s the list:
https://www.tripadvisor.ca/TravelMap-a_uid.9E8B53D01AC50CE33E90AA865F46C383