I rediscovered my journal from fourth or fifth grade the other day. I wrote some “interesting” stuff back then. Here’s the first entry in my journal complete with mistakes.

May 20, 2001

Today I woke up at 9:30 to watch Rwall! Redwall is a T.V. show base on the book Redwall, written by Brian Jauces. When I was done watching Redwall, an hour later we went groecry shoping for Plenty Buffet. But, first we went to ABC to buy some shrimp, but then we realized we might be a couple hours till we get home and the shrimp would be dead by then. So we we to [insert Chinese characters] first. Then we went to [insert Chinese characters]. After that we went to Plenty Buffet to dropp of our grocies and went home. At home I mowed the lawn. Oh yeah, I for got that at ABC we bought some oysters. At dinner we ate some shrimp, oysters, and fish. I like the oysters the best. After dinner my mom cut my hair. Which took about 20 minutes. Now hear I am writing in my journel. oh, I for got to get my money.

This must have been a weekend because I used to go grocery shopping with my parents every Sunday. Life was simpler back then. The next entry brings back some memories.

May 21, 2001

At class today we did our morning routines as uasel. Then we read Bound for Oregon and did the questions. After that we did some math. One of the questions was so hard barely anybody could figure it out. But I managed to figure it out because one of my math books taoght me how to do that kind of proplem. By the time we were finished with math it was reccese. After reccese I got to silent read, which I enjoyed. My friend showed me the new book he got and he let me read a little bit and I enjoyed it a lot. We played kick ball at P.E. I liked to play kick ball. After reccese, the teacher said idenitie #6 (which was me and three other girls). The fate was that my wife got bit by a rattle snake. So I had to write how to treat the bite at home.

I think I was in forth grade when I wrote the journal entry above. We were learning about the Oregon Trail at the time. Mrs. Grilley, my forth grade teacher, created a game where the class was split into groups which raced to the end of an Oregon Trail game. It wasn’t The Oregon Trail computer game; it was more like Dungeons & Dragons meets Oregon Trail. My group won of course. I remember that day because my parents told me how to treat a snake bite. You have to tie off the limb just above the bite to prevent the poison from circulating, make two cuts with a knife where the bite is, and suck out the poisoned blood (and spit it out). That must be one of the few things I learned in elementary school that I still remember…

My dad bought me math workbooks when I was younger. I could do basic algebra by fifth grade. That’s part of the reason I zoomed through math in elementary, middle, and most of high school. It looks like I could have used some spelling and grammar workbooks though.