20 years ago, in the 2nd grade

In September of 1991, I entered the second grade at P.S. 193 "The Gil Hodges School." My teacher was Mrs. Berrenberg. A running assignment throughout the school year was a journal in which we had to write a few sentences and a corresponding illustration. These are scans of each entry from 20 years ago, in the second grade.

“I watched the Olympics…”

When I showed this entry to my father, before starting this blog, he was totally perplexed: by his own admission he never could have fixed my broken Nintendo Entertainment System.  What is more likely is that I started crying when it wouldn’t work and he figured out that it wasn’t plugged into the tv properly.  Before long, I would have mastered the repertoire of NES repair tricks: blowing, brushing, licking, hitting, getting perfect timing for when to press the power and/or reset buttons, etc.  

The illustration is of the Sylvania television I had at home growing up along with the NES that was kept under it.  The TV’s showing static and the light on the left of the Nintendo is “flashing” indicating that its broken.  The facing page shows some lovely tornadoes!  

“I like the ski[i]ng…”

I neglected to write the assignment for this entry, but it obviously concerns the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville (I looked up where it was).  This entry is sort of a lie, probably used more as an excuse to draw a ski jumper rather than out of any appreciation for the sport itself.  Then, as now, I didn’t really care about the olympics.  I did, however, have own this Lego Technic Arctic Action Snow Scooter and I loved playing with the skier guy that came with it.  I like that what makes this illustration “real” is the camera man at the bottom.