Tax preparation day and middle school

I vowed I would spend a day working through Turbo Tax to get our 2004 return at least in managable shape...to day was it. This is the first year we have both been on our work some, play some, schedule. I was not sure how this would turn out tax-wise. "I'be danged if Uncle Sam would get the best of me!" So it is over...I have it pretty much done and things turned out OK. A word of note to readers...Michigan takes care of its retirees. The state tax liability is little or nothing for pension, SS, IRA payouts, etc. The feds take their pluckings wherever, but Jennifer really hangs in there if you do not have much "earned" income.

I read Amy's middle school synopsis. I remember teaching 13 year olds, but I do not remember much of my own Jr. Hi. days save for band and a few remote memories. My favorite is a contrast in time. In 1954 we had a teacher who probably was forced to sponsor a club of some sort and he took on an "outdoorsman" club. 25% of the kids in this city school were from the farm community just north of town. We all hunted. So one day we all brought our weapons to school...on the bus and stacked them in his closet. It was an armory. I did not have a gun of my own...we had several in the house and used whichever...so my dad gave me permission to take his 16 gauge Remington pump to school.

We were very safety conscious. We checked them repeatedly to be sure there were no stray rounds in them. Think of the noise racking the various actions to be sure they were cleared. One kid had a Japanese 7.7mm that was taken off a corpse in the South Pacific. There were deer rifles, target rifles and several shotguns. We knew them all. At the end of the day we packed them all outside and on the bus and home. Can you imagine that today?

Amy talked about period issues. I didn't know girls had periods until I went to high school. My mother had periods, but none of my class mates. But when we were (I me we all) were at FMS we had a faculty meeting after school in the library we all drug ourselves in. Becky Thomas pulled out a chair to sit down and shrieked, "This chair has blood on it. I'm not sitting here...Rexanne, don't you give your students time to go to the bathroom when something like this happens?" We howled.

The behavior I remember most is that girls traveled in packs. Everywhere. You rarely saw some of them alone. They needed each other they thought. If one was going it alone you always wondered what was going on. That has to do with note passing behavior I am sure. Middle school kids sweat a lot, don't bathe as much as they should and will eat anything (save wholesome food)...once I get started I start remembering too many stories...enough!