Friday 5 for May 21: Watch your phraseology

I haven't done one of these in several weeks. So here is the one for May 21. Questions from Scrivener's Friday 5 blog.

1. With whom did you most recently exchange words?

Yesterday with my friend Lisa regarding rewinding an audio book back 30 seconds twice. Errr.

2. Which of your weekend activities will feel like your sentence for a crime?

Laundry... been putting that off for a few weeks now. Running out of you know... need renewal, a new wash and dry. Quarters... ugh.

3. What have you loved or hated upon reading its first paragraph?

Hate: Tax form instructions or instructions for other kinds of bureaucratic government forms. Working at the State Legislature also forced me to read a number of bills and resolutions. Most of them are simply awful.

Like: I will probably pour through the instructions of my new Google Pixel 4a phone that I am supposed to get this week (through Amazon). 

Liked but not read: Project Hail Mary - I just completed this Andy Weir audio book. The story revolves around a lone astronaut stuck light years away from home who has to make some tough decisions. If you liked The Martian, then you may like this one too. The premise is similar but the setting and story is very different.

4. In the story of your life, what will be the title of the chapter beginning tomorrow?

"The Dystopian Unknown Continues".

5. What are the best and worst books you were assigned to read in school?

Best - For some reason I still remember enjoy reading the book Siddhartha by Hermann Hessee. Can't remember all of the plot points but it was a study of the deep contrast of class structure that prevailed in India. Interesting.

While this was not assigned reading, I also read The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx in 9th grade or so. I was just curious as to what communism was all about. After reading that mess, I decided that is not for me. Nope. I think I did a book report on it.

Worst? I hate to say, William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. I found it to be mostly too long, and for me it was hard to get by the use of the language of Shakespeare's time. I knew it was supposed to be good, but I never got into it.  Watching a movie helped.

Romeo & Juliet had its moments of difficulty but I think watching the movie first and then reading the book helped a lot. Gotta love the 1968 Franco Zeffirelli version of the famed, tragic story. It is the defining R&J movie for me.

Elementary school books were more fun to read... My Little Red Story Book, The Little White House, On Cherry Street and We Are Neighbors are school readers that I still remember with some fondness. I shudder to think what school kids of today are using as school readers....

Here's a very dated, behind the scenes clip on the production of the 1968 Romeo & Juliet movie.

Friday 5 for July 17: Hopscotch and Crayons

Questions from Scrivener's Friday 5 site.

1. What was your favorite piece of playground equipment when you were a kid?

Back in the day (we're talking 1962 - 64) our elementary school had this sliding board that was built on a 20 foot embankment. On rainy days a small mud puddle formed at the bottom of the slide. It was funny to watch other kids go splash in the dirty puddle. I never did that part... Mom would have given me lickins'.

2. What do you remember about your first-grade teacher? Pick the earliest grade teacher you remember, if you don’t remember anything about your first-grade teacher.

Mrs. Higa was my first grade teacher. She taught us first grade reading. The three books we started on were My Little Red Storybook, My Little Green Storybook and My Little Blue Storybook. After we got through with those basic readers, we moved on to a book called The Little White House or something like that.

When I think back to those books, they were nice and conservative and achieved the goal of teaching us how to read and more importantly these days, espouse the values of what the United States is supposed to be like.

I wish I still had those books. Some of them are worth money today.

I am too fearful to find out what kids of today are learning. It seems like the curriculum is to lay blame on America and destroy our great country. If that is it, this is really scary for our future.

At the end of our first grade year, the school was getting rid of those books and they gave three of them to me. Less than eight years later, my sister who was eight years my junior, picked up those books and pretty much taught herself how to read before she got to kindergarten. I remember she asked me about words she did not know.

Cool when I think about that today.

Sorry the answer to this question is more about the readers and not so much about the teacher, though I have to give Mrs. Higa credit for teaching us the basics.

3. What’s an especially memorable field trip you took with a class in your very early years?

Yes there are at least a dozen field trips I can remember going with my class at various stages of elementary school. Here are some of my most memorable.

Fifth Grade - JPO excursion to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. This is one of my favorite places to go to, but I rarely ever go these days. Last time I went there was in June 2005.

Fourth Grade - Hilo to visit the Hawaii Tribune Herald where I learned that the Horoscope was a bunch of bullshit, because the person there told us when the teletype broke, someone on the staff would just write one up... of course this was in the olden days when there was no internet. They gave us rolls of blank newsprint. That was fun. On that same trip we also visited the Lyman Museum (the only time I ever been there), and Hilo Macaroni Factory where they used to make Saloon Pilot crackers. We got free crackers!

Sixth Grade - We went to Waimea to the old Kahilu Theater to watch a play... forgot what it was but the presenters were Honolulu Theater for Youth as I recall.

4. What are some fads you remember from your elementary school days? Did you get into them?

The Beatles! - I had the pointy shoes. Heh. Parents would not let me grow my hair long. Had a couple of 45 rpm records... "I Want to Hold Your Hand".

Batman TV Show - with Adam West and Burt Ward was a big thing back in 1966. It was the first show I saw in color on a neighbor's TV set. We went to the full length movie that featured the TV cast. Fun stuff.

5. If your elementary school had food service, what’s a lunch you were especially fond of, and what’s a lunch you were especially not fond of?

Pizza was great. Shoyu chicken and rice was delicious as were most of the cookies.

There was some weird goop that passed for food that covered our rice. Not knowing what it was, we called it S.O.S. - Same Old S**t. We ate the bun, the fruit and drank the milk... but the rest went to the slop recycling counter... yuck... Haven't thought about that in ages.

My second grade class, May 1, 1965.