10-5-01 Long Brown Socks

I work with kids with special needs.
One of my students has autism and a challenging home life.
Another has serious learning problems and a difficult home life.
A first grader I work with spent much of his first day crying, yelling and looking pretty miserable.
I don't think it's a surprise I work with such kids.
When I look back at yet another of my mother's scribbles
(she must have been taking a writing class?)
I see that my mother was one of these little waifs
that I now get paid to work with....

How I hated them! I lived on a farm during WWII and it was cold. Snow, crunchy roads, shiny spots of ice, cars clanking along with chains. I loved the trees, especially with snow falling and the crisp feel in the air.

Mom made me wear these ugly, brown cotton sox from ankle to thigh and kept up by brown metal garters and a belt. I would leave for school with them on to pick up the school bus. There were trees on either side of the driveway and after I got to school I would go to the girl's room, unclip my sox and roll them in big soft rolls to my ankles. All day long the garter banged against my legs freezing me and pinching my skin.

On my way home up came the sox, fastened and if mom knew what I did, I didn't hear about it.