A Moment in Time

When I was in first grade, our teacher had us make jewelry boxes for our mothers as a class project. We used the following materials to fashion these earnest, Rococo-esque works of art: Cigar boxes, gold spray paint, dried macaroni, and glue. At our desks we glued the macaroni to the top of the cigar box. Then we headed outdoors for the spray painting- you know, gang sign grafitti all over public property.

Ok, so much for that attempt at humor.

I went to Bayshore Academy that year, and if I remember right the school was indeed on the shore of Biscayne Bay. It was a nice Miami spring day, not obnoxiously hot, and it felt good to be outside. One at a time a child would hold out his or her box and Mrs...Mrs.... I remember all my other teacher's names...something like Mrs. Goyette (ok, let's go with that) spray-painted the entire creation in gold. Lovely.

I was one of the last kids she got to, so my mind wandered. I made the decision that I would film everything going on around me, in my mind, like a movie. These were the exact words I said to myself: "I am going to choose to remember this the rest of my life." So far so good.

The photo below is one of the first times I decided to use a camera for that same reason: simply to freeze a random moment in time. I knew then that years later it would contain all kind of information. And it does- I recall the tiniest of details about 7th grade at Gulliver Academy from this one photo. In the foreground is Alma Lurz, who was my math teacher. She was a soft-spoken former nun (wait...former nun? Did she kick the habit? Wha ha) who had a musty, powdery smell. I'm smelling it right now. I've never known anyone else with that scent. She had infinite patience and once offered to buy my friend Laurie and me ice cream when we ran into her at the mall. Further back in the image is a raspy-voiced teacher named Mr. Brown. I was never in one of his classes, but my sister was. I remember she went to his funeral several years later. Also in the background is Lori Ryder who was a somewhat renowed competitive swimmer. I remember she got cool Peter Max glasses in 8th grade. She and I got together twice outside of school: One time we went bowling, another time she came over to my house and we went swimming. No, she did not compete against me. She was very easy going actually; nice girl. Now i'm remembering other things about her, and that's what I mean- photos open files we thought were closed.

Photos like this also offer evidence of the surreal: Kids really did dress like the Brady Bunch. We wore uniforms at Gulliver, so this photo is not the best evidence of that. But if you look really carefully, you'll see knee socks...