Staying Home Alone: Sixth Grade

Sixth grade was a year of maturing. My father’s death in fifth grade had catapulted me into learning to be a more responsible child, and my brother Jack was away at college. I learned to get my homework done, heat up and prepare simple meals, and take good phone messages for my mother while she worked at ClothWorld several nights a week and also served as a city councilwoman for our city. Many nights I fell asleep before she got home.

My routine would be to get dropped off by the carpool around 4pm and then I’d watch TV shows like “Who’s the Boss?” even though my mom didn’t approve. She didn’t like the premise of a single woman having a live in male housekeeper. I get it now, but I was desperate for after school companionship so I’d break the rule and watch it sometimes. We only had about 5 channels to choose from and although we had purchased our first VCR three years before, we didn’t really own any VHS video tapes to watch.

For dinner I’d make an American cheese and bologna sandwich and wrap it up in a paper towel to heat up in the microwave or I’d warm up a Kid’s Cuisine frozen dinner and eat it in front of the television. Around 6 or 7 pm I’d go upstairs to do my homework, but leave the TV on downstairs so that the sound could keep me company. I tried turning the TV off several nights but the house just made too many unsettling noises when the television was silent.

Shows like America’s Most Wanted were off limits if I wanted to sleep well. I learned very quickly to be discerning in what I watched because a night of peaceful slumber was at risk if I had those scary scenes, and mug shots of criminals on the loose in my head. I could just imagine they were in the bushes by my window peering in at me, and I’d lay frozen under the covers barely breathing.

My neighbors were my age but they were twin boys, Jason and Eric, with a little brother Troy who thought it was funny to spit, and yell “shut up!” at everyone. I really wanted to go outside and ask to play catch with my softball mitt or join the touch football game, but I was too aware of the boy girl difference and rarely worked up the courage to talk to them or interact.

At school a couple named Mr. and Mrs. Kanop hosted special chapel meetings for the elementary students for one week. They challenged us to start reading our Bible every day and to put a sign on our bed to remind us to read our Bibles when we got up in the morning.

I went home, tore a piece of notebook paper out of my trapper keeper and wrote in big ink letters READ YOUR BIBLE and taped it to the right bed post at the foot of my creme canopy bed with gold accents. Each morning I would open my Precious Moments Bible and read a chapter of Proverbs. I was amazed at how many times Proverbs say to get wisdom, get understanding, and to listen to instruction.

Reading Proverbs really opened my eyes to the fact that my learning was important to God. God wanted me to take my learning seriously and to treasure it. What I gained from the book of Proverbs really helped me throughout my education because I knew learning was not only a good thing it was what God expected of me as His daughter and I wanted to obey.

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Tagged as: age 11, sixth grade