Y.M.E. (Part 2)

It's weird how you can remember so many things from your childhood but can't remember where you set your wallet 15 minutes ago. (Not that I'm currently missing my wallet...or checkbook...or phone...)

So, as I was saying, back when I was still a wee young lad and attending grade school at East Side Elementary, I always enjoyed "story time". It was usually right after lunch (which I also enjoyed) and recess.

I remember several of the stories that were read to us. Most notably was probably, "Where the Red Fern Grows"... and that being most noteworthy as I'm sure Val and quite a few of our classmates remember it as well. (5th grade. Mr. Schwanabeck and Mr. Moon.)

But there was another story from (if I'm remembering right) Mrs. Schultz's 3rd grade class that I've long wondered if anyone else remembers. It was one of those stories that came with a record - which was a bonus because there'd be music and singing included with the narration.

The catch to this is, as was stated in the story, only one person at a time knows the song.

Ever.

If that person should teach someone else the song, then they immediately forget it.

So I took it upon myself to Google and YouTube the lyrics...and found none.



And I know I might be a little strange in what I choose to remember (like how I memorized Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven" in Bjornebo's Junior High English class) but the song and the story went like this...

"In a whole doughnut
there's a nice whole hole.
When you take a big bite
hold the whole hole tight!
If a little bit bitten
or a great bit bitten...
there are no nuts
in a you-know-whaaaaaaaaaat?
...in a doughnut."

And I could totally sing that right now without the record to follow along with.
So of course I've asked myself, "Is this like one of those Highlander deals, where there can be only one? Am I then, that one? Is there always one? Am I now immortal unless I go senile and unintentionally teach it to my caregiver?" (Remember...only one person at a time. No master/apprentice duo thing like the Star Wars Sith Lords do.)

"I am Chad Nowacki of the clan Nowacki, and I cannot die - for I know the doughnut song."
(Nope. Sounds way cooler when the McClouds say that using their own last name. Guess I'll need to come up with my own immortality catch phrase.)


Well, East Side Elementary is no longer. The building is still there but it's not a public school anymore. The same can't be said for the Junior High as it was demolished last year and is now just a big, empty grass lot. The High School I went to is now serving the city as the Junior High and a new H.S. was built several years ago.

But even though the buildings may have gone da-way-of-da-dodo and locker #490 no longer has combination lock code 27-9-41, I still have memories from each school.

For example, Mr. Doyle (Junior High) was the first person I ever heard use the expression, "The carpet matches the drapes." when referring to a red haired individual. He also taught us that, if we were to ever find ourselves in a situation where we are alone and injured from an open wound and in need of medical attention that's not nearby...say, like in a desert or something...that our first morning urine is good for preventing/treating infection.

Well! Isn't that just good to know?



So now my kids are in J.H. and H.S., but in a different town. They're learning a lot of the same things I learned as I learned a lot of the same things my parents were taught.

I told them to ask the teacher at Thanksgiving time, "If the Indians taught the Pilgrims how to hunt and farm and fish, what did the Pilgrims eat before they got on the Mayflower?"
(They didn't ask.)

The school my kids attend is called Yellow Medicine East. It's often shortened up to Y.M.E. which in turn is shortened by pronouncing the abbreviation as "Why-Me".

The town itself, I believe, rests partly in Yellow Medicine County and partly in Chippewa County. And I'm not entirely caught up on my Native American cultures, but I believe the Upper Sioux Reservation rests in Chippewa County... and unless the Chippewa were a branch of the Sioux (compare here the Lutheran faith with umpteen variations all under the same name) I find it a little odd that it's not called Sioux County.

There's a river somewhere along the 30 mile stretch between my jobs called the "Yellow Medicine River". I don't know if the river was named first or if the county was, or if either had anything to do with the naming of the other - and I haven't researched the topic at all, but I'd guess that "Yellow Medicine" was somehow named in a round-about way by the natives.

I just really hope that it wasn't by a young brave who came up on some pale-face who was taking a first-morning-piss on one of his cuts...



"...and his eyes have all the seeming of a demon that is dreaming and the lamplight o'er him streaming casts his shadow on the floor, and my soul from out that shadow shall be lifted nevermore!" (Sorry. Still really like that poem.) :)