Long boring stories about me: Starting College
As those of you who have been paying attention know, my Daddy was a psychology teacher at the local Community college. He did free counseling for his students, which left me with oodles of time to run amok around the social science department, harassing the students and conning the secretaries out of cookies and candy. (This is very easy to do, as secretaries love to spoil little girls)
I also spent quite a bit of time annoying my Daddy's colleagues. If he had a particularly busy afternoon (a fairly regular occurrence) I would run around and chat with any of the teachers who would tolerate me. A number of them had a large impact on my life, but none more than Marv Jaegers.
Mr. Jaegers ("call me Marv" "yes Mr. Jaegers") only worked part-time, but his office was on the way to the bathroom and the social science office (this is where the cookie and candy conning took place) so I saw quite a bit of him. He taught readings in American and European history classes, basically his students had to read a number of historical novels, (3 per credit, if I remember correctly) and then pass an oral exam about them. Not exactly rocket science.
So one fine spring day when I was twelve (goodness it's hard to believe I was ever that young, I hardly even had breasts back then, inconceivable!) I stopped by his office and asked if I could borrow a book, (I've been an avid reader since I was about six, I had run out of books to read, and Daddy was too cheap to get me a library card [it's a good thing too, if I'd had a library card I probably would never have left the house, except to go to the library, of course]) Mr. Jaegers was, naturally, only too happy to lend me a book, I don't even recall the title, but I do remember enjoying it. (It had a couple of kinda steamy scenes, and for a pubescent girl it doesn't get much better than that) I started reading it right away, and didn't really put it down until the following afternoon, when I finished it and returned it to Mr. Jaegers.
Now, if office gossip wasn't what it is, that might be the end of the story, but alas, even seemingly intelligent, educated, professionals fall prey to the temptation to spread rumors, and Mr. Jaegers didn't believe that a twelve year old little girl had finished a 600+ page book in under 24 hours, and he wasted no time in telling anyone who would listen that Mr. Lindsay's little angel had borrowed a book from him, and returned it the next day claiming that she had finished it. ("She always seemed like such a sweet little girl, we never thought she'd be such a little liar") This rumor spread like wildfire throughout the department, quickly making it back to my Daddy, and the following day on the drive home Daddy asked me if I'd actually read the book in it's entirety. I was shocked that he'd ask such a thing; of course I'd read it, why on earth wouldn't I? Additionally, he's the one who came into my room at 1 am and made me put the darned thing down so I could get some sleep. (You have to realize that up until this point, the majority of the books I'd read had been written for children or teens, this was my first real experience with an adult novel, and I ate it up, it actually had a plot! And sex! (Not any real sex, mind, just some kissing and a wee bit of groping, but I was twelve, it gave me warm funny feelings in my special place [Iowa]) And a few words that I actually had to consult my dictionary to understand! [I must've been the weirdest kid ever, I got some sort of sick thrill out of learning new words, though you wouldn't know it now, listening to me talk {"like, oh my god, did you like, see that guy? He's so like, cute!! Ooh and I love those pants, they're soooo like, cool and stuff."}])
So, Daddy being the prideful man that he was, asked me if I would let Mr. Jaegers test me on the book as he would a student, and me, being the somewhat precocious, terribly self-conscious (and kind of wounded at this point too, I really couldn't believe that Mr. Jaegers could think I'd lied to him, I thought of him as a friend) girl that I was, naturally agreed.
(Now I'm gonna talk about something else for awhile, just cause I know the suspense is killing you, this is a real edge-of-your-seat kind of story isn't it, heck, I know what happens, and I can't wait to get to the end [alright, now that those of you who were undecided on whether or not I'm completely nuts or not know the truth, we'll get back to the story])
They set the "test" up for the following Monday, after I got out of school. I gotta say I was pretty nervous, not only was it my first oral exam, but we're talking about a college level test here; I expected it to be difficult. I'd never really been tested on my reading before either, and I hadn't been reading for retention, just for enjoyment. But of course I did fabulously, scoring 100% and eliciting an apology from Mr. Jaegers, and a load of pats on the back from the rest of the faculty (most of whom "never doubted me for a moment," everybody’s always on your side, once you've proven yourself right)
This gave Daddy an idea, he decided at this point that I should just start going to college, and he set about making that dream a reality. Over the course of the summer he had me take 3 of Mr. Jaeger's classes (without registering for them, as I wasn't a student yet) and he started lobbying to get me registered as a student. He got Mr. Jaeger's, Mr. Delf (another History teacher) and Mr. Klobas (I later took NLP classes from Klobas, he was fond of saying things like "I oughta divorce you before I marry you, and where would you find another one like me?" and "if I was only half a century younger, you'd be in trouble") to write letters on my behalf, and he made me jump through all sorts of hoops, take all sorts of tests, and meet with oodles of "important" people.
By Fall, at the tender age of 12(and a half) I was a full fledged college student, although, despite the fact that I was going to college full time, I still went to Elementary school 2 days a week for the first two terms. (Talk about opposite ends of the spectrum, I can't even begin to describe how strange it was to go back and forth between those two worlds, Monday, Wednesday and Friday I was a college student, while on Tuesday and Thursday, I still had recess twice a day)
I also spent quite a bit of time annoying my Daddy's colleagues. If he had a particularly busy afternoon (a fairly regular occurrence) I would run around and chat with any of the teachers who would tolerate me. A number of them had a large impact on my life, but none more than Marv Jaegers.
Mr. Jaegers ("call me Marv" "yes Mr. Jaegers") only worked part-time, but his office was on the way to the bathroom and the social science office (this is where the cookie and candy conning took place) so I saw quite a bit of him. He taught readings in American and European history classes, basically his students had to read a number of historical novels, (3 per credit, if I remember correctly) and then pass an oral exam about them. Not exactly rocket science.
So one fine spring day when I was twelve (goodness it's hard to believe I was ever that young, I hardly even had breasts back then, inconceivable!) I stopped by his office and asked if I could borrow a book, (I've been an avid reader since I was about six, I had run out of books to read, and Daddy was too cheap to get me a library card [it's a good thing too, if I'd had a library card I probably would never have left the house, except to go to the library, of course]) Mr. Jaegers was, naturally, only too happy to lend me a book, I don't even recall the title, but I do remember enjoying it. (It had a couple of kinda steamy scenes, and for a pubescent girl it doesn't get much better than that) I started reading it right away, and didn't really put it down until the following afternoon, when I finished it and returned it to Mr. Jaegers.
Now, if office gossip wasn't what it is, that might be the end of the story, but alas, even seemingly intelligent, educated, professionals fall prey to the temptation to spread rumors, and Mr. Jaegers didn't believe that a twelve year old little girl had finished a 600+ page book in under 24 hours, and he wasted no time in telling anyone who would listen that Mr. Lindsay's little angel had borrowed a book from him, and returned it the next day claiming that she had finished it. ("She always seemed like such a sweet little girl, we never thought she'd be such a little liar") This rumor spread like wildfire throughout the department, quickly making it back to my Daddy, and the following day on the drive home Daddy asked me if I'd actually read the book in it's entirety. I was shocked that he'd ask such a thing; of course I'd read it, why on earth wouldn't I? Additionally, he's the one who came into my room at 1 am and made me put the darned thing down so I could get some sleep. (You have to realize that up until this point, the majority of the books I'd read had been written for children or teens, this was my first real experience with an adult novel, and I ate it up, it actually had a plot! And sex! (Not any real sex, mind, just some kissing and a wee bit of groping, but I was twelve, it gave me warm funny feelings in my special place [Iowa]) And a few words that I actually had to consult my dictionary to understand! [I must've been the weirdest kid ever, I got some sort of sick thrill out of learning new words, though you wouldn't know it now, listening to me talk {"like, oh my god, did you like, see that guy? He's so like, cute!! Ooh and I love those pants, they're soooo like, cool and stuff."}])
So, Daddy being the prideful man that he was, asked me if I would let Mr. Jaegers test me on the book as he would a student, and me, being the somewhat precocious, terribly self-conscious (and kind of wounded at this point too, I really couldn't believe that Mr. Jaegers could think I'd lied to him, I thought of him as a friend) girl that I was, naturally agreed.
(Now I'm gonna talk about something else for awhile, just cause I know the suspense is killing you, this is a real edge-of-your-seat kind of story isn't it, heck, I know what happens, and I can't wait to get to the end [alright, now that those of you who were undecided on whether or not I'm completely nuts or not know the truth, we'll get back to the story])
They set the "test" up for the following Monday, after I got out of school. I gotta say I was pretty nervous, not only was it my first oral exam, but we're talking about a college level test here; I expected it to be difficult. I'd never really been tested on my reading before either, and I hadn't been reading for retention, just for enjoyment. But of course I did fabulously, scoring 100% and eliciting an apology from Mr. Jaegers, and a load of pats on the back from the rest of the faculty (most of whom "never doubted me for a moment," everybody’s always on your side, once you've proven yourself right)
This gave Daddy an idea, he decided at this point that I should just start going to college, and he set about making that dream a reality. Over the course of the summer he had me take 3 of Mr. Jaeger's classes (without registering for them, as I wasn't a student yet) and he started lobbying to get me registered as a student. He got Mr. Jaeger's, Mr. Delf (another History teacher) and Mr. Klobas (I later took NLP classes from Klobas, he was fond of saying things like "I oughta divorce you before I marry you, and where would you find another one like me?" and "if I was only half a century younger, you'd be in trouble") to write letters on my behalf, and he made me jump through all sorts of hoops, take all sorts of tests, and meet with oodles of "important" people.
By Fall, at the tender age of 12(and a half) I was a full fledged college student, although, despite the fact that I was going to college full time, I still went to Elementary school 2 days a week for the first two terms. (Talk about opposite ends of the spectrum, I can't even begin to describe how strange it was to go back and forth between those two worlds, Monday, Wednesday and Friday I was a college student, while on Tuesday and Thursday, I still had recess twice a day)