Freewrite+Shirley's+Shoes

I was in Shirley's Shoes when....

some mean kids kept following me and my brother home from school and teasing us. They called him "Coconut Head" because of his home-done haircut. It was pretty scary at the time.

I went to Canada and when I finally got better at chess.

my family took a trip to New Hampshire. We went to a water park. There were kids in the pool. They were all talking about where they were from. They were not from far away like me. I didn't know how to introduce myself because I was from so far away.

I got into a fight, when I really loved a teacher, when I was new in a class, and when I stood up for myself.

I was little and jealous of my friend who got to go really cool places with her father. I still spoke to her, though.

I was on an island where they spoke French and the people were very poor (compared to us). I had a friend who had 8 brothers and sisters and they all slept in hammocks. I was visiting and the father had me sit with him at the table, while all the kids watched, and the mother served me very yucky cookies and warm, sickly sweet grape soda. I could tell all the kids were drooling and very envious--it was like what they would get on Christmas. But I knew to be polite and respectful of this foreign land, I had to drink very drop and eat every crumb. And so I did.

I was in school and I took piano lessons from the music teacher, but he didn't have a bird or false teeth.

I was at home and wanted to play with my sister and brother and they were fine alone with each other. I wanted to play with them, but they didn't want to play with me.

I moved to a big city from a small town. On my first day of school I was in a French class and I didn't know what the French word "discotheque" meant. I didn't know that it was an English word too! (In my small town we only had Honky Tonks.)

a friend came with me to my mother's art studio and she was sketching a nude model. I was in elementary school and my friend came in the door behind me. She turned bright red and stared and stared, and then when we walked out she started crying and begging me not to tell her mother. I felt strange--guilty, like I had done something wrong. For me, seeing a nude model was completely normal.

I watched the Yankees and Dodgers play the world series. But when I watched, the Dodgers were in L.A. and they won!

Home Being American