In the last post I was mentioning the odd and random things that I found contained within my dad's genealogy attaché. One of those was an essay which I wrote for a contest back in 6th grade. The information sheet that was handed out, along with my handwritten notes and a few typed up versions, with corrections, were all in the bag. It's weird to be able to go back to this. This essay is a bitter sweet moment in time for me, and also it is difficult to imagine that all of the weeks of effort that I put into it show that I barely wrote anything at all. I'm well within the guidelines, but I don't remember it being so short! I did not remember that it was an essay contest sponsored by The National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, nor that it was associated with American History Month, as that was the title of the essay contest. I do remember being excited about the DAR, because I was totally fascinated by the American Revolution as a child (I still am, by the way), though really I probably would not want to be in the association even if I could prove an ancestor had ties to it. But my maternal grandmother had been a member of the DAR when she had still lived in Ohio and we have the very tiny rocking chair of that Revolutionary ancestor whom she offered up for enrollment; and I remember talking to her about this essay contest as she was keen on the subject as well, but didn't realize that the talks of the DAR had anything to do with this. So, she was in it, as I've said, but when she moved down to Mississippi in the 1940's there was no Daughters of the American Revolution, only the Daughters of the Confederacy and she certainly wasn't going to join that, even if she had been eligible, which I'm sure she wouldn't have been. I don't blame her. Even if my biological maternal grandmother really is my biological grandmother (see this post); I could technically join the Daughters of the Confederacy because she had been a member, but I think I'll pass, yeah? Growing up, I wasn't told that my mother and aunt were adopted and it also wasn't a topic to be discussed in front of my grandmother. But, my mother wasn't eligible to be enrolled in the DAR, and neither was I, only I didn't understand that if my grandmother had been in it and could prove her Revolutionary lineage, then why couldn't I? But that's all a weird past now, and though she wasn't my biological grandmother (the woman I knew to be my maternal grandmother while I was growing up), she's still my maternal grandmother; blood or no. I'm OK with no one else in her family being my relations of not being able to claim whatever his name was who created that rocking chair. That's not important. She was who was important. But moving on. So, the information page states this:
Isn't that cute? Computer generated? It was 25 years ago this month, after all. Computers were still kind of new-ish. Somehow I had access to one, because one version was typed up on a typewriter and two versions were typed up on a computer and printed out on one of those old, noisy printers with the side strip containing holes that you would tear off after it was printed out. So, I'm going to type up my very short essay as it is typed and then discuss it more. "Famous Landmarks of the American Revolution" The Battles of Lexington and Concord Sarah Katherine Roberts Big Blue House (I'm editing out my address, because I still live here) Mississippi Sacred Heart Catholic School 6th Grade The National Society Daughters of the American Revolution 344 Words Paul Revere was born in 1735. He was notide (noted) for the heroic midnight ride on April 18, 1775. On this journey, he was accompanied by William Dawes and Dr. Samuel Prescott. The British Army was going to kidnapp Sam Adams and John Hancock. William Dawes and Paul Revere, after searching most of the countryside, both got through to Mr. Adams and Mr. Hancock in Lexington. It was after the incident when the coast was clear, that the British Army was to attack on foot instead of by boat on the Delaware River. Paul Revere sneaked past the army and went from the city of Charleston to Lexington. When he got there, some men hung two lanterns in the Boston Church at midnight to tell the colonial people that the British Army were coming, "oneith" by land and "twoith" by sea. Lexington, like all of the other colonies that fought in the war, was the beginning of the Revolutionary War. On April 19, 1775, the minute men in the town lined up to fight the beginning of the war. The seventy-seven minute men all lined up and saw about seven hundred British Army men standing right in front of them. Before they could move and get out of the way, someone fired a single shot and the war began. At the end of the first battle, it left eight colonial men dead and ten wounded. When the sun rose, the British Army marched on to Concord, New Hampshire. The people in the town had worked very hard all night to hide all of the military supplies, like guns and amunition from the British Army. And the minute men waited patiently in front of the city of Concord for the British Army. To destroy the colonial people's guns and amunition, the British Army stayed in the little colonial town in Concord, New Hampshire on April 19, 1775. All of the colonial citizens had taken most of the guns and amunition. The part of the British Army that crossed over the river were taken back to shore by some minute men. Bibliography Book, "The American Revolution" by Bruce Pliven Jr. Book, "One if by Land and Two if by Sea" by Lionard Everett Encyclopedia, Encyclopedia Britannica 1768 Volumes 5, 6, 13, and 19 All of that took at least two weeks of research at the public library downtown. Mom would take me in the afternoons after she'd picked me up from school. We'd enter at the lower level and she'd settle me down at a table in the children's section and then she'd go upstairs for her own purposes to the adult sections. I suppose she was probably either researching things on genealogy, on stamps, or possibly both. After two or three hours, she'd come back downstairs and we'd leave to go home. So, is this good for a twelve year old? I have no idea. I see some glaring spelling mistakes like notide and kidnapp, besides the fact that it doesn't seem very concise and I kind of keep repeating myself. And the instructions were quite clear for winning. You had to list the specific chapter of the DAR that was sponsoring you, which I did not, because I didn't have a sponsor, so I just labeled it by the National one on my title sheet. There could be no spelling or grammatical errors and it needed to be organized better. Even the topic is quite clear: The Following suggestions are offered in the hope that they may be helpful to the students in selecting their subjects. When writing about famous landmarks of the American Revolution, attention might be paide to: Military sites, Historic structures. In choosing a landmark or landmarks as the subjects of their essays, the students should demonstrate how the course of the American Revolution was affected by their chosen subject. I've left in their spelling mistake of paide and written it exactly as it appears on the information sheet. There's actually more spelling mistakes in the information sheet than there was in my essay. But, though I technically wrote about a military site (a battle site) and a landmark/historic site, I barely mentioned it except to say Boston Church. Is that good enough for a 12 year old in an essay contest? I ask these questions because I won and also did not win. I do not know how many schools in my area were participating, but at Sacred Heart, only the 6th grade class was offered this contest; and out of all 15 students, I was the only one to participate. I handed my essay in to the teacher a week before the deadline, and she didn't deem it worth her time to send it in. I would not have known any of this and would have just assumed I didn't win, except a letter was sent to the principle of my school. She called me in from class one day to show me. They did not receive my entry until three weeks after the deadline, but if it had been turned in on time, I would have won because it was an excellent essay. I read and saw the letter from the DAR, that is what it said. How many submissions did they receive on time? Two? Surely mine couldn't have been the best written one submitted, right? Though my principle did not tell me, she did relay it to my mom who relayed it to me; that she, the principle, asked my teacher if anyone in the class had submitted anything. The teacher said one student had, but it wasn't worth sending in (I am unsure if it was because she read it, or because only one student participated, or if her decision was because that student was me), so she never did. My principle made her send it in, even though it was after the deadline. Sixth grade was the last level that school had then. They'd started as a full school sometime in the fourties or fifties when they'd opened, going all the way from Pre-K to Twelfth grade, and they do again now, but at the time sixth was the "senior" year there. I had only attended fifth and sixth grades because my mother was dead set that I attend a Catholic School. I returned to my former school of Oak Grove after my stint here. However, my friend had been going since Pre-K and would be going to a Presbyterian School for 7th & 8th grades before she would go to Hattiesburg High. She was one grade lower than I, so when she entered 6th grade and this essay contest went around, it was now mandatory for the students all because of the fiasco with me. The previous year she knew how I'd been working on it and heard of the non submission. She related to me how the teacher was praising my work, name dropping my name a lot, and saying how I would have won (though neglected to mention why I wasn't even in the running) and that it would have brought prestige to the school. Everyone in that class hated me and my name, because it was all my fault they were forced to participate in this essay contest on history. I don't think it should have been mandatory, that's ridiculous. I wonder how long the DAR sponsored this contest and how many years Sacred Heart participated in it... touting my name along with it? Hopefully it was just that one year attaching me to it, otherwise how horrid! I mention the teacher not liking me as a possible reason because... well, she didn't. She would single me out and ridicule me. Wouldn't allow me a break for the restroom during class though she allowed everyone else, even multiple times, called me a slut for wearing this pink lipstick that was approved by my mother; the lipstick not the name calling, she was mad about that. My mother did not allow makeup before age sixteen and even then it had to be light, so this was a very light pink. She always found fault with my very decent clothes on Free Dress Fridays, and she always found fault with my uniform somehow. I was sent to the principles office more times than I can count, which the principle always deemed the reasons as ridiculous because I could just go back to class or go to the library and was never written up or punished. I am always happy to say that I missed my graduation from that place. Since it was the "senior" year, they did a graduation ceremony in the church. I told the principle that I'd just sit it out and not rehearse because I wouldn't be there for it. There was a Girl Scout trip to Georgia that I was signed up for and would be missing the last two days of school (and the ceremony) and I was pleased as punch about that. I have tried writing before about my experiences at that school, but I have never finished a post about it. Suffice it to say that I absolutely loathed the two years I was there and they were the worst school years of my life. I will relate a full tale someday, but that day is not this day (I do love quoting that line from Return of the King, even when it doesn't suit. Nerd! heh) I'll end with some of the other fun finds left by my mother in the attaché case. The top picture is the front and back view of the Cinco Australes from Argentina. The Australes was used between 1985 and 1991. The other photo are the stamps my mother was wanting to keep and the first day of issue Locomotives stamp from 1987.
I think that the first day issue envelope was from a stamp membership club, as in "here's this to get you started and now order this monthly" sort of thing, from the way it was packaged. She did not join that club. The others, well the two Costa Rica stamps would be off of letters from her old school mate in Costa Rica. My mom attended an all girls Catholic boarding school in the sixties and lots of girls from Central and South America would attend too. The Canadian ones would be off a letter from my aunt, my mothers sister, who lived in Canada at the time. The Denmark stamp? I don't know.
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AuthorA girl from South Mississippi who finds herself in exploration. Archives
November 2019
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