I happened to catch a glimpse of this picture while scrolling thru social media. I’ve seen it more than a handful of times in the last year or so, and each time I saw it I’d pause because it would always conjure up a time period and specific incident memory. That, and correlating that period in time to other things. So this time I thought I’d actually stop and blog it. And for no other (person’s) use but my own, as if to carve a marking into a tree and perhaps decades later see it again.
We had those student chairs all through my elementary school years except 6th grade when we occupied the brand spanking new wing at PC Lujan Elementary School in Barrigada, rooms 101 to 106. The new wing was furnished with new furniture. I can remember back to 1st grade sitting in these chairs/desks/book storage thingies. One distinct memory was 5th grade, Mr. Rodney Worman’s class. I was a row over from Fred Sanchez. He wasn’t paying attention to class and had turned around to talk to the student directly behind him, his back pretty much to front of the classroom. Mr. Worman took notice and got pissed, quietly walked to Fred’s desk and, from underneath, kicked the desktop. It broke off, flew straight up in the air, and then crashed back down on the chair desktop brace. Fred was startled and terrified. I thought to myself, wow,. very intense and quite “violent” for a teacher/student thing.
That’s it, no moral to the story. Just memory dumping.
Oh and a note that these desks of that era are now a lifetime ago. Lou and I already knew each other back then.