Taking a stroll down memory lane

I've started working on a new craft project which is rapidly taking on a life of it's own as my craft table and floor around it are now strewn with bits of paper and scrapbooking doo dads. Last year I found a cool journal that has a plain wood cover and a cut-out window, so you can decorate it yourself. I finally painted the cover dark blue and decoupaged a couple of things onto it, and I found a postcard of a Tiffany stained glass beach scene that I put in the window because it reminded me of Cape Cod.

I am decorating the journal pages themselves with old pictures of me from when I was a baby, and I am going as far as the 6th grade (1975-1976). It's coming out pretty good so far, although time consuming because I am mounting all the photos on coloured paper and also decorating all the pages with ribbons and stuff. I'm up to 1973. And there's so much stuff in there that the journal won't close at all.

In order to add some key elements to this project, I needed to get a bunch of stuff out of a box we've had in storage since we moved up here in 1999, and which was probably in storage back in California as well. It was in the garage attic and Brian very sweetly offered to go up and get it for me (for those of you who haven't seen the spiders we have up here, they are ginormous).

Incapable of having an original idea of my own when I was a kid, I tended to copy stuff I saw on TV, in movies or read in books. After my mom and grandmother took me to see "Paper Moon" in 1973, I bugged my Uncle Yimmy for a cigar box, like Addie's. My mom saw where this was headed and told me in no uncertain terms that she'd tan my hide if she EVER caught me smoking like Addie and that Tatum O'Neal wasn't really smoking. About that same time, I read a book called "The Truth About Mary Rose" and one of the characters had a shoebox of childhood trinkets. So I got a shoebox and started to fill it with my own little trinkets. The stuff I needed for my journal project was in those shoeboxes.

However, before I unearthed the shoeboxes from the bottom of storage box, I found my Sex Pistols shirt and my Boomtown Rats 1981 tour shirt. I held them up and I just cannot believe I ever fit into them. They are so tiny!! Delving deeper into the storage box, I came across a folder of my elementary school records, including those standardized test results we all had to take (with a #2 pencil of course), and my SAT scores. I'd forgotten that I'd picked them up at my old high school in the late 1980's after getting a letter saying that they were going to be destroyed unless I wanted them. I shoved the records into a folder after a cursory glance and never actually studied them, because I was starting to pack to move to California.

Those records in and of themselves were quite a hoot. My kindergarten report card states that "Joanne has a hard time sharing and is domineering with her friends." hahahaha Gee, I wonder why? As an only child, I didn't have to share with anyone, and I ALWAYS got my way when I played with my stuffed animals! I didn't exactly live in a neighborhood that had children my own age, and I only saw Sharon and Diane on holidays and vacations. Other elementary school records state that I was "talkative" and "social" in class, and that I "hurried through my work". Too funny. I haven't changed one iota....although I'd like to think that I'm not domineering w/ my friends anymore and that I have learned to share a bit better.

As for being too social in class (and I'm sure Liz remembers this) in 10th grade Geometry, the teacher moved me 3 times because of talking and passing notes. Unfortunately every time she moved me, she sat me next to someone with whom I was also friends, so I never stopped talking. Plus when Mrs. DeLacy's back was turned, Liz would throw a folded note across the room at me, I'd respond, and throw it back. By the end of the year Mrs. DeLacy gave up and let me return to sitting with Liz. No wonder I had a D average. Actually, Liz and I got in trouble all the time for passing notes in 8th grade Civics Class and 11th grade Algebra 2. Junior high and high school were just one big social event for me and the work was secondary. If I had a nickle for every time I heard, "Joanne is very bright but does not work up to her full potential" I'd be as rich as Bill Gates. I just preferred talking on the phone and listening to records to doing homework and studying.

I think the thing that surprised me the most was the results of the standardized tests. According to the one taken in 6th grade, I had language, spelling and reading skills on an 11th grade level, and was in the 99th percentile nationally. My IQ in 6th grade was 115. I was feeling quite full of myself when I read that.... till I read my math scores. Abysmal. In 6th grade, my math skills were only on a 5th grade level. I fell into the 30th percentile nationally. That will explain why my IQ never rose above 115, because I just cannot do math at all.

And speaking of abysmal, I cannot believe I got into college with the SAT scores I had. I'm embarrassed to even say what they are! Combined math and english, a whopping 770, even though my senior year I was on the honor roll for the entire year and was inducted into the National Honor Society. In my defense, I think it is unrealistic to expect a teenager to perform well on a test that starts at 8:00 on a Saturday morning. And I never was good at multiple choice anyway....give me an essay test any day.

The final test result in the folder was from a test they gave us in the 9th or 10th grade, that measured what your interests were and then scored you on what career choice for which you might be suited. Typically, anything having to do with math, medicine, engineering, teaching or customer service was scored very low for me. And what was scored highest? Artist and the Legal Profession!!!!! I cracked up, because that one was right on.

I'll post a few pictures of my journal pages when the project is complete.