Tuesday, November 10, 2009

In defense of my profession

OK - I have figured out the mystery of how my co-workers misjudged my birth year.

One of the women in the department knew that she and I had both graduated from high school in 1978.  Figuring that if I was six when I started the first grade, with a birthday in November, they deduced that I must have been born in 1959.

Math was fine - but they didn't have all the facts.  They didn't know that I was the last kid at home and Mom was ready to have all her kids in school.  So, since I could already read and count and was unusually tall for my age when classes started in September of 1966, she took me to school registration and talked the school into letting me start at 5.  Thus started my school career of always being the youngest and the tallest in my class. (And in a roundabout way set me on the path for criminal activity in the great pumpkin heist of 1978 when I was a 17 year old college freshman - but that's a story for another day.)

7 comments:

Taryn said...

Hey, I was a 17 year old college freshman as well! Started the day afer my 17th birthday, skipping my senior year to get a jump on college (hind sight asking "WTH was I thinking?!"). No criminal activity involving pumpkins for me, though :-)

Jeri said...

Yep I was a 17-year old college freshman too...my mom also started me young. :) So I was last to drive, last to be able to drink (legally)...! Must not have bothered me TOO much, as I am attempting to get Charlie into the same situation (my birthday is Oct 4, hers is Oct 9). :)

penni said...

My Granddaughter's birthday is November 7th. To get her in school, my kids had to enroll her in a private school. Once she has attended the private school for three years, they could move her to her next grade in public school -- she's also tall (though definitely not from my side of the family) and very smart. She's now in 2nd grade and doesn't seem to be suffering much by being the youngest in her class.

Claire said...

An analytical mind can often lead one astray... I was also a 17 year old college freshman.

dreameyce said...

Excuses, excuses ;0P

I started college at 16, but can't say much to that, since I've not finished. *sigh* I figure before I'm 30, I might decide on a degree to finish! I've officially changed my major 8 times. Luckily, I know that's not a record ;)

Red Dog Mom said...

Interesting how many of us who have Cardigans were precocious children. I didn't start school early but did end up taking college classes at 15 years of age (thru the HS), actually attending classes on campus at 16, and graduating from HS a bare 10 days after turning 17. Then I didn't go back to college until I was 28 and graduated a couple weeks after my 31st bday.

Kaye said...

Those of us with fall b-days start early, I was 17 too. But when my sister had her daughter in October, she debated weather to put her in school early or not. I voted not, that way she can always be ahead of her class, rather than behind. Anyways this is starting to sound more like a post than a comment!