Adolescent Crimes are hard to deal with.

Usually our first adolescent crimes are an indication of the type of person we become.

I started school in 1963 at the not so ripe age of 5 years old. My illustrious educational career started at Monocacy Elementary School in Barnesville Maryland. Even though I can not remember the teachers name, I can picture the kindergarten class room. It was about 15’ wide and maybe 30 feet long. The outside wall was filled with tall aluminum window frames, the type that open inward on horizontal hinges. There were metal venetian blinds on the windows with pull ropes to open and raise the blinds. The windows gave us a view of the bus parking lot and the main road. Not much to see, but at least some sunshine. Below the row of windows were shelves full of books and typical 5 year toys. On the other side of the room was our coat closet. It was about half the length of the room and was not much more than a long hallway with doors at each end and coat hooks and shelves along the back wall. For the most part all I really remember from back then was one particular day in Kindergarten. I was playing with the big wooden blocks that we used to build houses and other wooden structures. One of my class mates, Gary Honemond (sp?) was playing with me. I do not remember exactly what happened, but Gary made me mad about something, and I hit him with a block. Normally this would not have been a big deal, but my mother was standing right there watching me. This was the first time I remember getting into trouble in school. When I got home that night, I got my butt beat like I’ll never forget. I got in trouble lots more in school and I am sure most of the time I got my butt beat for it.

I am proud of the times when I got in trouble in school and my parents did not find out. I can’t tell you about those times, even now I still fear the paddle. I assure you – this was the first of many Adolescent Crimes. Some reported, some not. Maybe I’ll share some more with you in time. Read some more at www.tlburriss.com if you want to see what else I did as a child Teddy