Weekend Assignment

Everyone seems to have so much fun with these weekend assignments that I decided to try it myself.  When I was in the second grade we lived further out of town than any family, after school the bus ride alone it would seem to take till sundown before I would make it home.  We lived on my Nana's farm, my mom's mom.  The bus would drop me off at the end of a long dirt road and then I would walk home.  It seemed back then a long way to walk, but it was always an adventure for me.  One of my friends in the 2nd grade got to share those adventures.  Roy was a little freckled kid with huge coke bottle glasses.  He was very rambuntious.    We only lived about a mile apart and we met exploring out in the woods.  I had always had imaginary friends living so far from civilization, and in school i was pretty quiet and kept my nose to the books, or drawing.   Roy and I would spend hours in imagination of space, planes, or traveling back to prehistoric times.  We swam in the old ponds, which i wouldn't put my big toe in now.  I felt like Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn,  I loved to read so I was always making up crazy stories and we always were on an adventure.   We also had some wonderful fish fries down by his families pond.  Nothing better than catching our fish and then frying it, those hushpuppies with onions were delicious too.  We played pirates a lot too, and we both were excited when we got to play pirates in our 2nd grade play "Peter Pan".  Unfortunately or maybe it was a good thing we were in separate classes.  I probably wouldn't have done as well if we had been in the same class.  I do remember them letting him come to my birthday party in my class though.  Cupcakes for everyone.   Then 8 licks by Mrs. Barton, my teacher in front of the whole class.  I enjoyed this assignment.  Makes me want to try and remember more.  Roy moved between the summer of 2nd and 3rd grade,  I only saw him once after 2nd grade, it was my first year of college and I was being interviewed on television, "Town and Country", its a NBC show in South Georgia,  I was in our college production of "The Glass Menagerie",  and right before my interview, which I was very nervous about, this giant pig came up to me and said Derek,  I started laughing and said yes?  Then the pig took it's head off and it was my friend Roy, he was the mascot for this years "Pig Jig", it's a big barbque or something in a nearby town.  Anyway we caught up and shortly after not quite as nervous I had my interview, I wish I still had that tape of me, I was smiling ear to ear.  My mom said he's married now and has two little ones.  We didn't really keep up with each other.