I’m talking specifically about school, but liked that picture so much I used it anyway. Is it real? I don’t think he’s going to make it. And ol’ Hangover Johnny over there on the porch needs to step in. Right? In any case, do you have any interesting memories of 4th Grade? I do, and they’re predictably weird. Why don’t I remember the normal, wonderful times? It’s always with the fucked-upness… And I break it all down for you in the latest episode of The West Virginia Surf Report podcast, available at the magic widget below, or wherever you get podcasts. Oh, it’s out there, insinuating itself into polite society. Check it out!
After this week I won’t be working many 5-day weeks for the remainder of the year. There might be one or two in there, but it’s mostly 4-day extravaganzas, on account of my need to burn vacation time before the end of the year. It’s great! I just took many Fridays and a few Mondays, here and there. And I have nothing planned, except I might go to Cooperstown with Steve, to visit the Baseball Hall of Fame in early November. We used to go yearly but got out of the habit. I’m pushing to get it started again. Other than that… just long, glorious weekends! I’m a confirmed fan of the long, glorious weekend.
And for Thanksgiving, it’ll be just like last year. I snapped this photo when dinner was ready on Thanksgiving 2018. I’ll have to discuss it with Toney, but I’m thinking that this year we’ll just sit it in the middle of the table, rip off the top, and eat straight out of the box. Or maybe just pass the box around the living room, and not even bother with going to the table. It’s still a work in process. I’ll keep you updated.
It’s been years in the making, but I finally finished watching The Fugitive TV show. Season 4 was wildly uneven, and not as much fun as the previous three seasons. So… I started it many times and kept throwing in the towel. But I wanted to see how they wrapped it up and wasn’t willing to just jump to the final two episodes (parts I and II). Those episodes were a huge deal when they were first broadcast, and are still among the most-watched scripted shows in history. Here’s a good article about How The Fugitive’s Heart-Pounding Finale Changed TV Forever. Awesome!
David Janssen, who masterfully played Dr. Richard Kimble aka The Fugitive, died young. And this incredible paragraph from his Wikipedia page blows my mind every time I read it. Check this shit out:
A heavy drinker and a four-pack-a-day smoker, Janssen died of a heart attack in the early morning of February 13, 1980, at his home in Malibu, California at the age of 48. Janssen was buried at the Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California. A non-denominational funeral was held at the Jewish chapel of the cemetery on February 17. Suzanne Pleshette delivered the eulogy at the request of Janssen’s widow. Milton Berle, Johnny Carson, Tommy Gallagher, Richard Harris, Stan Herman, Rod Stewart, and Gregory Peck were among Janssen’s pallbearers. Honorary pallbearers included Jack Lemmon, George Peppard, James Stewart, and Danny Thomas.
My first thought: four packs per day?! Sweet sainted mother of ol’ Hangover Johnny! Also: based on the rest of that ‘graph, it was clear the man ran wide-open. Johnny Carson… Rod Stewart… Gregory Peck… Milton Berle… I feel like he had some fun in his short life. What do you think? Incredible.
Finally, I’m still in mourning about being jettisoned from the Amazon affiliate program. Ugh. I don’t even want to do the Now Playing In The Bunker thing anymore, but… at the same time, kinda do. So, maybe I’ll just put the cover up and not link to it? We’ll see how that goes. Not sure if it’ll work out long-term. But we’ll give it a shot. As I wrote this update, I was listening to the first Pretenders album, from 1980. One of the all-time greats!
I’m calling it a day, my friends. Don’t forget to share your memories of 4th Grade in the comments. Or whatever else you want to discuss. It’s all good. Mostly, anyway. I think I’m going to go upstairs now and make a ludicrously-large ham sandwich and go all David Janssen with it. No half-stepping, in tribute to the master!
Have a great one, boys and girls.
I’ll be back soon.
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I was watching a David Janssen TV movie a while back on YT. I could hardly understand him. His voice was shot. I recall jumping over fire pits but never people. I don’t recall much about the 4th grade. I think that would have been 1974 for me. I think I was in the Cub Scouts that year.
4th grade = the first time I’d had male teachers. One was young and cute; the other old, greasy, and enormously fat. The fat dude would face the class at all times, writing on the chalkboard over his shoulder. Blech.
I think that was the year I started in band, after having been in chorus for what seemed like my entire life. The 5th-grade horn player wore turquoise rings on ALL her fingers. Fascinating. Took me half the year to get brave enough to blow into the instrument. Fear of failure runs deep in perfectionists.
Don’t remember much about 4th grade, but that’s better than the ‘absolutely nothing’ I remember about 2nd or 3rd.
No mood rings?
(the bike in the photo is an example of the transition between banana seat bikes and BMX bikes)
When we were 12 or 13 or so, we did exactly what is pictured in your photo. Multiple times. Except I think we had 8 kids lined up before the parents came out and put the kibosh on it.
I will never forget my 4th grade teacher. The year – 1972. Ms. Robertson. She was fresh out of college and wore the shortest dresses/skirts I had ever experienced. She was very popular with our principal and the one or two male teachers at the school. Of course all of the boys loved her. Mainly because she had a habit of sitting on her desk and leaving nothing to the imagination. Sadly, that was her one and only year at our school. Too many complaints from our parents about her attire and lack of modesty.
What do I remember about 4th grade?
Ms Woodson did NOT like me. She knew my older sister from their college days together. Maybe what was really going on was that she really did not like her, and decided to take it out on me. Also, classmate Phillip Zimmerman, who was a chronically antagonistic person. He seemed to want to argue and fight about anything, at any time. If you’re still out there Phillip Zimmerman, you can go fu*k yourself! Good to get that off my chest.
I was feeling pretty good in 4th grade, having survived my grade 3 teacher who could have taught Hitler a thing or two about being mean. Miss D had a last name that I still would not attempt to spell, she had to leave it up on the board the whole year so that we would get it right. There was a guy who would always give me his dessert from lunch, he was a true hero to me. Sadly he passed away about ten years ago. The lesson I take away from that is always eat your dessert, ’cause ya never know.
Oh, I also insisted on going to school one day even though I was sick. My mom tried talking me out of it, but I insisted, because I had a crush on a girl in my class. About 11 am I puked all over my desk. That brought an end to 4th grade romance.
For some odd reason, 4th grade was when the school deemed us old enough to opt for either soda or milk with lunch. Of course every kid chose soda. I guzzled my fair share of Cole and Orange Fanta. I think (I’m probably wrong by a year or so) but this may have been the year we also learned penmanship and HAD to use cartridge pens. Every mother’s worst nightmare as those cartridges were apt to leak. A lot. On woolen uniforms. Not to mention they were a bitch to scrub off your hands.
Obviously not a dairy state. Big Milk made sure students drank the white stuff around here. I think you had to be a junior in college to opt for tomato juice, then you were shunned like a masturbating Mormon. I haven’t had a glass of milk in twenty years or so: milk isn’t so good for people with stomachs and digestive systems. But I only get away with it because they paved paradise and put up a parking lot. In effect, the plant closed and they moved back to Wisconsin.
John
I’m choking on my coffee! I read masturbating Moron instead of masturbating Mormon.
I know both teachers you were taking about. Desk shaker smacked me in the head with a ruler. The other one was amazed that i could write left handed.
Talking, not taking…..
Imagine a teacher smacking a kid in the head today? God, I’d pay money to see that!
And….Pretenders first album was awesome, before the drugs took Pete and James out! One of my favorite recordings ever.
Jeff, I listened to the podcast, still waiting on you to defend your emphasis on “Taco” when you say Taco Bell. I hope you didn’t lose my voicemail message!
The Chicago teachers are on strike. Bless their hearts, they want to teach the new mayor a lesson.
Meanwhile, the property owners of Illinois are on the hook for the unfunded pension liabilities.
I reckon that you’re 9th grade would be my primary 4 (8/9yr old?). My teacher was a fucking ogre. Thinking about it, she was actually fairly easy on the eye (not to a 9 year old!), but her temperament was way off. I honestly can’t remember her ever being happy. God knows what she had going on in her private life, or not, but she didn’t have to make my school day dreadful.
Mrs Houston, if you’re reading this, I hope you are very ashamed of yourself.
Hard to think about Mrs Houston in Scotland without wondering whether she was related to the imagined Mr Hooston in Bill Forsyth’s Local Hero, a magical movie about a beautiful part of the world with a kickass Mark Knopfler soundtrack.
John
That’s a great movie. If you like that soundtrack, check out ‘Cal’ by the same artist.
I had a succession of teachers for 4th grade. Maybe they kept quitting or getting fired; who knows. One thing I remember is a kid named Lawrence who stood up on his desk, dropped trou and said “lookit my dick!” With the teacher out of the room, of course. The crime I got busted for was hiding a novel inside my reader.
Was the “novel” a Hustler magazine?
I wish. It was probably some Heinlein book.