Encyclopedias

 Encyclopedias. People of my generation and before may remember these. A collection of books with information complied on certain topics. Encyclopedia Britanica was the best, apparently. The other two publishers I knew of were Funk & Wagnalls and World Book. 

World Book, as I remember it, was most commonly found in the library of your school. This was the book you reached for if you wanted to start a research project--you wanted to know about a president, a continent, a country, an animal--you name it, the World Book probably had a quick bite of information about the topic you wanted to learn more about. 

Britanica seemed to be a bit more acadmic than the World Book, and sometimes I'd see it in the school library, but I would gravitate to the World Book. The information was more accessable for me. The font, as I remember it, was more Times New Roman-y, smaller font, the pages seemed to be of higher quality, the binding was a nicer quality. 

Doesn't matter, I guess. I didn't go to the Britanica. My go-to were the World Book at school and Funk & Wagnalls when I was at my Grandpa's house. My grandpa had two sets of Funk & Wagnalls. Maybe he had World Book too. I don't remember. 

My Grandpa didn't have a computer, or a TV most of my childhood, he didn't even have a phone, but he had plenty to do at his house. He had this brown 70's style carpet in his living room, a record player on a stand (also very 70s), and booksheves full of encyclopedia volumes and atlases. 

This was my favorite thing to do as a child. I would lay on his 70s style brown carpet and pick a letter from his encyclopedias and just learn. I would start with some nugget of curiosity my grandpa would give me, and then go from there. 

One time, he told me that Mexico City was the biggest city in the world. I had to know more. I don't remember the events exactly, but I'm sure I want to the "M" volume and began to read up on the city. This is where my facination with populations of cities began. To read that Mexico City had millions of inhabitants blew my mind. Then I looked at the photos and the maps included. I'm sure my next action was to then look at a city map. 

I could spend hours just looking at the map, imagining what it was like to live in the same place with millions of other people. And that's what I did. 

Today, that curiosity is still there. It's muffled a bit by my responsibilities. I have to work. I bring my curiosity to work, but I can't sit at my desk and imagine cities while browsing Wikipedia. (or can i?). Wikipedia is great, though. 

I did have an interesting memory come to me. There used to be a Furr's grocery store in downtown Santa Fe. My grandpa would take me there occasionally, and an endcap of one of the ailes had a display of the newest Funk & Waggnalls encyclopedias. My grandpa would take me there and we would by each book individually. The books would be in his collection, but of course I could read through them any time I wanted. 

I Don't Know Spanish

 I don't know Spanish. 

I think I should. I grew up around a little bit of Spanish. My grandpa (who lived next door), and my tio, who also lived next door, and my other neighbor, Tony, and my grandpa's cousin, who also lived next door--all spoke Spanish. 

I guess I should explain what "next door" is in Santa Fe. We all kind of lived "next door". I grew up in an old part of Santa Fe. I mean, I suppose all of Santa Fe is an old part. 

*Rabbit Hole* now I want to know when the houses I lived in were built. I won't do that now. 

Okay, so I grew up close to the intersection of Guadalupe and Agua Fria. There's no rhyme or reason to the neighborhood design. Houses just went up where they went up. 

I mean, check out this image from Google Earth. Not sure if it illustrates my point very well, but it's a cool image either way. What I'm trying to say is that this area more than likely predated cars. I really don't know, but I could look at a historical map. 

Okay, had to look it up. Here's a website I found in a quick google search. 

https://nmplates.com/FirstAutomobile.htm

Sweet images. Looks like cars were in New Mexico around 1905.

https://www.historicsantafe.org/maps

This rabbit hole I did go in. Maps. 

Officially my favorite map. 

So, yeah. My neighborhood predated cars. 

What was I talking about? Oh yeah. Spanish. I remember talking a bit of Spanish to my Tio and to Tony. It consisted of only, a "Hi, Tony. Como estas?" and he'd respond with "Muy bien, usted?". Same with Tio. 

And my grandpa didn't speak Spanish to me, but he would sing Spanish. He was a musician, and he loved mariachi music. I would watch him practice on his vihuela and he would sing. He would also play his harp (that he made) and sing songs. I'd watch him play and sing in Spanish. Some of my favorite memories. 

And now that I'm getting older, I'm coming to appreciate where I came from more. I'm sad that my generation lost the language, but I'm hoping to bring it back a bit. I'm doing some Duolingo lessons, and I'm learning a bit. Maybe I can encourage my kids to learn Spanish, too.

I Forgot My First Grade Teacher's Name

 Today I'm forcing myself to write. 

I had some time to think about a memory I wanted to talk about. 

Sometimes, it's easy for me to get caught up in whatever is going on in my life at the time. These days my mind is racing. Racing all the time, and not really on anything important. Maybe this is what they call "overthinking"? 

Either way, even now. I'm trying to relax my brain so I can retell this story.

...

...

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First grade. I don't remember much from first grade. I went to Alvord Elementary in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The school's closed now. But I have some memories of the school. Apparently very few from first grade. 

Here's a memory from first grade that stands out. I remember our first grade teacher giving us an assignment to bring our teeth that we lost to school. I remember we placed all of our lost teeth in small, clear plastic cups, and we filled these small cups with Coke and watched the teeth decay over the next couple of days. 

How did this work? Or is my memory twisted? I don't think everyone in the class lost their teeth at the same time. And what about the tooth fairy? Was this a sacrifice our teacher had us do in the name of science and dental hygiene knowledge? So many questions...

This stands out to me, though. This memory never left me. And from then forward, I knew that soda's had a negative impact on my teeth. I guess it's worked, too. I've never had a cavity in my life. 

I think the next lesson was how to brush your teeth. I remember the graphic that was shared on patters to use to brush your teeth. There were little kids doing cartwheels and this directed us to brush our teeth in a circular pattern. 

The other memory I have of first grade was of me presenting something to the class that I thought was interesting. I talked about the Tyrannosaurus Rex's mouth. I found out somewhere that the T-Rex could open its mouth up to three feet. At the time, I was three feet tall. So I made this connection and it blew my little first grade mind. So, this is what I shared. 

This is all I remember about first grade. I don't even remember my first grade teacher's name.

Now that I think about it, I don't remember my fourth grade teacher's name either. 

I remember what my fourth grade teacher looked like, but my first grade teacher--she's just gone from my memory. I don't remember what she looked like. 

Okay... I just remembered the name of my fourth grade teacher. Her name was Ms. Booth. She was from Missouri, or somewhere in the midwest. First grade is still gone. 

Here's a cool image I found from another blog of the angle a T-Rex was capable of opening its mouth.   http://palaeoblog.blogspot.com/2015/11/how-wide-could-t-rex-open-its-mouth.html

Have you ever seen those videos of seagulls eating large mammals, or a pelican eating a pigeon? I picture the T-Rex swallowing whole prey that seems like it should be too large to eat.