POEM - First Grade Frenzy of 1977-78

It was a beautiful summer day

In sunny Southern California

Only tainted by one small thing

I was in year round school

At the grade school

My mother had gone to

We’d just arrived from Oregon

Hanging out until my dad got a permanent job

Working at the docks in LA

For his parent’s trucking company

The best mornings were fog mornings

So thick we played hide and seek

Right on the open field

Excuse me, I must correct that

I went to first grade in Corvallis

Bundled up in coat and goulashes

Shoving my gear into the coat room

With all the other gear

Then dressing again

For the walk home

Wait, I mean I lived in Philomath

And I was bussed to school

To be bussed to another school

Now just a second

I was in Philomath

But I stopped being double bussed

And made it a few months

But Philomath was a temporary deal

OK, Gresham, yes this is it

And I am getting bussed

Out to the brand new school

With the nice new classrooms

Past the school in my neighborhood

Then one day we heard  on the news

A girl had been kidnapped

That lived in our area

The next day the closer school called

They had an opening

At my sixth and final

First grade school