Chapter 2: Grade 2
Grade 2 was my last school grade in Hillsborough as we were about to move into the city of Moncton.
Again I waited for the bus, and, sure enough, he came, and we went to the school.
I had a new room and a new teacher. The piano from the Grade 1 room was moved into the hall to join the other 2 in the hall. It then moved into a room near the office. The classes were similar and we had the same music teacher for music classes, with the same songs and the same record.
Hallowe’en came up. Then the school got decorated for Christmas and our Music Class sang some Christmas carols beautifully, and, of course, Christmas came. This was wonderful. Then Easter came.
I successfully graded from school, and summer, sure enough, came, and with it, camping trips in Cabot Park and Fundy Park, hotel trips, and beach trips, along with barbecues and bonfires in which we roasted marshmallows.
We sold our house (and I wish I could go back in time with the DeLorean Time Machine from Back to the Future to the time I lived in that house), and we moved into a new house, but before we moved, we rented a house with a pool, which we enjoyed. The downstairs piano was moved to the McWilliams’ house. Our red Datsun truck had had it and one day Jennifer was driving it, and the hood flew up! (Bummer, right?) Like Dad says, on Nissans, formerly Datsuns, “Hoods fly up!” We got rid of that truck and now we had just the Volvo 240 and the Ford van.
Chapter 3: Grade 3
When I moved into Grade 3, we were still in the rented house, and it was a new school to me. It was called Bessborough School. The Grade 3 teacher’s name was Mrs. McPherson, and my T.A.’s name was Mrs. MacBeath. The lessons were similar to those of Grades and 2. The music room had the exact same piano as the music room at Hillsborough School, but the music teacher then was different: a supply music teacher, who was later a choir director at a local church called Holy Family, named Mrs. Doucette. The Physical Education class was great.
Later, one frigid, cold, snowy day, we moved into our new, just-built house, which was walking distance from the school.
The Christmas that followed we got a keyboard and a Nintendo system, on which we played Super Mario, Donkey Kong, Excite Bike, and other games in a 30-games-in-1 cartridge. We were playing it and enjoying it so much that the days in school that followed, I, who was autistic, was moving my thumbs and fingers in the motion of using a Nintendo control to pretend play Super Mario and humming the Super Mario themes from the game so much, which was distracting to the teacher and my classmates, that I was cut off from that for some time.
One of my sisters, Melody, was in Moncton High School and starred in the musical The King and I, as Tuptim. 10 years later the same musical came up at that school and Erin had the same role. I saw the musical too.
Other than that, studies went well for the rest of the year.
During this grade I was baptized into the church and Jennifer was my Godmother. Later I got my First Communion.
The summer that followed I went to summer camp at Camp Centennial, just down the hill from my house. Moncton was celebrating 100 years. There we sang songs, did campfires, swam in Centennial Beach, roasted marshmallows and hot dogs, had juice time, and sang Johnny Appleseed for grace every lunchtime where we yelled at the top of our lungs “JOHNNY APPLESEED!!!” in the end. The lodge had a piano that was very out of tune, I mean it was in tune, but it was twangy.