My father died when I was 5 years old. I often wonder how my life would be different if he was still alive. I am sure I would be quite a different person. I grew up rather shy and I depended a lot on my mother. I was one of those annoying clingy kids that would just stare up at you as you talked with my mom in the grocery store or something. At least this is they way I remember it. Although I was really little, I remember going into my first day of kindergarten with the feeling that I needed to make some friends. I had a plan to do just that.

As I met every new kid in my class or on the playground, I would hold out my hand and say “Hi. My name is Donald, but you can call me Donnie. Would you be my friend?” I actually said this. My girlfriend laughs at this story everytime she hears it and says how cute it is, but I think it shows my total lack of social skills. 🙂 I guess this lack of skills continues to this day. I always feel a little uncomfortable with new people and I usually feel that whatever I have to say will not be found at all interesting by the listener. I don’t know if this is true or not, but that’s how I feel.

I seem to remember kindergarten pretty well – much more than I remember 2nd grade for some reason. Maybe 2nd grade was just boring? I can remember one kindergarten incident particularly well. I was sitting next to one of my friends (no doubt taken in by my friend campaign!) at one of the tables that we used. We were doing some sort of individual excercise I guess because we had these folded cardboard shutters around each of our work areas to keep us from looking at our neighbors. Well, I felt the need to talk to Dave next to me. Unfortunately, the teacher (an older lady who had probably been teaching for 40 years) saw me. She came over, grabbed my face in her hand and told me not to talk. I remember feeling her boney fingers squishing my tender young cheeks against my teeth. It hurt a little, but the shame of getting caught was much worse. I don’t know if I cried at all, but I do know that I never spoke in class unless spoken to first.