Seven’s Fall

Day 55

Me with the "Preppie" look.

School days - I’m now up to my junior high school years and first up is the seventh grade (1986-1987). I was in a new town altogether: Rigby, Idaho. And I attended Roberts Junior High (a very small school in the town of Roberts). This school was so small. How small you ask? It had one, short hallway. And only one grade was taught there. I would have to ride a bus from my house to Rigby Junior High (which was just for the 8th and 9th grades), then take another bus to Roberts, which was quite a long journey (or at least it seemed that way to me).

On my first day of school I discovered that I was a bit overdressed when compared to the other kids, wearing a dark blue sweater and blue slacks while the rest of the boys were in t-shirts and jeans. I toned it down from the next day going forward. After school ended and I rode the bus back to Rigby Junior High I missed the bus that would take me home. Me and my friend David (who lived near my house) were stranded at the school, so we decided to walk home (boy, we sure could have used cell phones back then!) which was a very, very long walk. Our houses were out in the boon docks, far away from the metropolis of Rigby. Luckily, as we walked, and walked, and walked we were picked up by a nice man (who was from our ward and also my next door neighbor) who took us to our homes.

I felt like I adapted to the junior high experience OK and as the weeks passed I made some new friends. Then October rolled around and it was time for SPUD HARVEST; for many students this meant spending two weeks farming potatoes with their family (this was Idaho, after all!), but since school was closed EVERYONE got the two weeks off!! A nice fall break! Little did I know that those would be eerily appropriate words for me.

I am going to expound on my accident in a future blog posting because it is a long, long story; but for now here’s the Readers Digest version: on Monday October 6th I was out climbing in one of the cottonwood trees near my house, I grabbed a branch, it snapped and I fell about 20 feet. I must have landed standing up because I broke both femurs. Ouch!!

Me and my tutor, Mrs. Twitchell

Anyway, the rest is for another story, but suffice it to say that I did not go back to Roberts Junior High for several months. I ended up being tutored for most of the seventh grade. My tutor was named Mrs. Louise Twitchell, and she was just awesome! A great tutor, a great help! She was so kind to me, so patient and supportive. She came to the hospital for a couple of hours every week day, then to my home when I was released from the hospital. She gave me my assignments, taught me the lessons and gave tests/quizzes. All of this one-on-one teaching was absolutely great for me! Instead of an 8 hour day in school, I’d have two or three hours at home. It was certainly an adequate amount of time for school work, and my report card proved this, as I earned straight A’s (even in math, the subject I absolutely loathe!!) I grew very fond of Mrs. Twitchell and was so sad when the time came for me to return to school.

I returned to Roberts in the spring of ‘87, when I was able to use crutches. It was so strange coming back to school, and all of the students were curious about me. Many had heard what had happened, but many hadn’t, so I had to share my story again and again. Because of my crutches I wasn’t able to ride the bus to school anymore, so my mom had to take me to school and pick me up everyday. As I mentioned earlier this was a long journey!

On the last day of school there was a dance at the end of the day and I wasn’t too keen on trying to dance, so I waited for my mom to pick me up from school. I was outside, enjoying a beautiful day.  I could hear the music blaring inside of the school and I wondered what I was missing.

After a few weeks I no longer needed my crutches and by the fall of ‘87 I was literally back on my feet.