Record your Life - Third grade pen-pals

Why is it that last week I struggled so much to remember even a small inkling of second grade but I've known since I first heard about this project that I was going to share about pen-pals and our Tennessee trip when it came to talking about third grade? Isn't it strange what the mind holds and what it doesn't?

Third grade was the year that everyone looked forward to in our school. That was the year you got a pen-pal AND you go to visit them too. I don't remember my pen-pal's name or anything about writing her specifically. The writing part was actually part of our school work, we were graded on the letters and whether we sent one or not and Miss Carter always gathered all the letters and sent one big package of them to the teacher of the students we were writing. And then when we got our letters, we all got letters on the same day.

The BEST part of having a pen-pal was the field trip that we took to Tennessee that spring to visit our pen-pals. When you load up an Imperial Travel bus (a travel bus) with a whole load of third graders and their chaperones for a week long trip to Tennessee, you're bound to have fun (and mishaps) along the way.

I don't remember much of the bus ride really. I do remember the librarian's son being with us (which was strange because he was a year older than us and even went to a different elementary school than us...same town/school corporation, different school) and singing Rocky Top (a song we had to learn in music class about Tennessee).

And I don't even remember meeting my pen-pal. Well, I take that back. I do remember meeting her (we all met each other on their playground) but don't remember anything we talked about. I do remember that we slept in the school gymnasium (girls and boys! - a big deal when your a third grader) and that the bathroom stall doors were SHORT. I could see over the tops of the doors when standing up. It was so strange to me because our stall doors were normal height (like what you'd find at a store or something). Strange, strange, strange.

The most memorable part of the trip - we went to Cades Cove and hiked to the waterfall. On the way back my best friend tripped and broke her ankle. I remember our teacher and another parent (not sure if it was a mom or dad) putting their hands together between them and Shari sitting on top of their hands so they could get her back to the parking lot and then to a hospital for a cast (they had to call for an ambulance so the rest of the class didn't have to leave in the bus as well).

I don't remember the ride home or anything else about the trip - just going and Shari falling and breaking ankle (which means for once it was someone other than me who was a klutz!).

This is my fifth posting at Mommy's Piggy TALES recording my memories in just 15 weeks. If you're interested in doing the same for yourself, swing by her place to check it out!

Click here to read my post from last week, where my second grade memories aren't very good memories.