So on careful retrospection, MAYBE, I did have a big ego (good thing that we've cured me of that eh?) - Many of the comments written in my graduation yearbook refer to my big ego.... Hmmm.... - I was definitely self centered, but I could also care about the feelings of others (no need to bring up that Don Rickles period!) - I COULD be generous as long as it didn't cost me too much or there was the possibility of a greater return in the (near!) future - I knew that I was intelligent from an early age (hell, they kept telling me so!)
- my opinions were always superior (but I could concede (condescendingly) to greater force or authority)

Although my room always had a lot of clutter, there was a long period where I was neurotically neat (NOT in my appearance...)  - ( everything had it's place and should BE in it's place! ) -  lucky for me now,  that my wife and kids HAVE cured me of that) - ........................usually pretty friendly, but a bit of a loner.....

Mom: Did you know that you always studied people before you would go up to them or let them come up to you? You started this when you were very young and I don't think you have ever changed. When ever we would have company, the other little kids would bound forward and just be tickled. You would always stand close by me and sorta lean into me while looking them over. I used to call you my little old man. You observed everything and absorbed everything. I used to wonder where you got all this intelligence from.

Joyce Stimpson was our eighth grade Valedictorian from Metamora Elementary School - Her mother was our teacher for awhile (before Mr. Russell) and the school principal - this is NOT meant to say that Joyce didn't deserve this position - SHE DID - she worked hard for it - I, on the other hand, came in second with barely an effort and was a bit embarrassed to find myself in this position in the first place - I had only been at the school for one year and it seemed a little strange to take this place so easily - our graduation exercise was held in the Pilgrim Congregationalist Church and included prayers that I did not join in or bow my head for - I looked really dorky, dressed up for this event and the ceremonial walk in was a hoot - I don't remember what I said in my brief speech - it was very strange to be back in "elementary" school anyway, as I had already been to Jr. High School in Lapeer for the 7th grade...
"Graduates" didn't automatically go to high school in Lapeer - through some strange jurisdictional fiction, students had a choice of going to Lapeer or going to high school in Dryden, which was a few miles to the east of Metamora - I choose to go to Lapeer, but many of my classmates went to Dryden...

Kindergarten through 6th grade - I know it sounds strange to many, but I really enjoyed going to school - (we even played "school" at home) - I liked most of my teachers and the school work was pretty easy - I had a lot of friends and a few GOOD friends - I survived the school bullies along with everyone else, but I was rarely bothered by them - My favorite teacher was Mrs. Green who also taught me "Black Magic" - I think that I had a bit of a crush on Mrs. Green and I probably would have been willing to marry her - oh the cruelty of differing ages - the building was originally brick, but had extensions built on to it to accommodate all of us baby boomers - the cafeteria was in the basement of the original building - this is where we had assemblies and where the PTA  met...

On my first day of school, in kindergarten, we were shown a COLOR cartoon of the three little pigs and the big bad wolf - I don't think that I had been to a movie yet and I was only used to black and white TV - I was really impressed by this astounding technology! What a great introduction to school!...

We didn't have a lot of playground equipment, but we did have swings, a BIG slide, a merry-go-round (my favorite) and a set of monkey bars - later they introduced tether ball -  there was a big field where we played a lot of soccer and there was a baseball diamond - the last time that I was in Elba, we drove past the old school and it was being used as a storage facility for public works vehicles - they have a new, modern elementary school in Elba now - it even has an indoor swimming pool...

  Kindergarten -  Mrs Szewc
  grade 1 -   Nellie Green
  grade 2 -   Nellie Green
  grade 3 -   Ruth Wilder
  grade 4 -   Ruth Wilder
  grade 5 -   Alma Mawer
  grade 6 -  Donald Dittenber

In 7th grade, my home room teacher, Mr. O'Brian, suggested that I try reading some "older", more mature reading material - he gave me a book to read called "El Cid" about the hero of the Spanish wars to drive the Moors from the Iberian Peninsula to create the country of Spain - this was a fairly exciting book to read and then in one of the paragraphs it stated something like " and they hung him up on an iron hook by what made him a man" - now THIS was unheard of in any of the reading material that I had been exposed to at that point - obviously this made somewhat of an impression on me as I have remembered it for all of these years - I don't remember much about that book except for the title and that single passage...

We used an electric fence around part of the field beside our house in Elba to keep the horse from wandering away - we didn't do it too often, but we learned that you COULD hold on to the wire for a short time and experience the tingle of electricity in the line - this fence didn't have the power set very high, but the power for the fence around some of the fields where I worked on the Christmas tree farm was set much higher, sometimes we could see tall weeds blown up against it by the wind and they would immediately curl with a whiff of smoke - ( often wondered why it didn't start a grass fire...?) - this fence was positioned  about waist high and we were VERY careful whenever we had to cross it... we had no desire to have it accidently spring back up and catch us in the crotch....

I did have an erector set as a kid in Elba, but it wasn't one of my favorite toys - it did have a simple electric motor however that I once took completely apart and put back together again - I figured that I could get in real trouble if I couldn't get it back together again, so I very carefully laid out each part in a row as I took off each piece - it went back together again in exactly reverse order - I had no idea that I was using the same principle as a blow up diagram - I just didn't want to get into trouble - even so I was still surprised as Hell when it worked ok after I put it back together... since that time I haven't been all that intimidated to take a look inside of machinery even if I didn't know what made it tick... (but I'm NOT particularly mechanical)