My Déja Vu is happening all over again

This week, I have been seeing my age.
Now I know there is an old saying about ‘feeling’ my age, but that usually leans toward my body’s aches and pains.

No, lately, I have been ‘seeing’ my age.

It began last Friday, the 4^th of April.  I was working as a TA Sub in a 6^th grade Social Studies class.  The teacher played an internet audio of a part of Martin Luther King’s last speech, the one he presented the evening before he was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.
MLK died in 1968, which was 40 years ago.

As she went on with the lesson, I got to figuring the time in my head.  April 1968 I would have been 11 years old, in the 6^the grade, ready to have my 12^th birthday that summer.
Forty years is a long time, but my body was in almost the same situation. Sixth Grade Social Studies.

I’ve worked in several school buildings this week.
In each place, someone would look at me with a confused expression on his or her face, especially when I was reading aloud.
One boy in an Art class even asked “Do I know you?”
to which I replied “You were in the Pre-K Room at ____ Daycare Center” while I was a TA there.
One girl in Kindergarten had been in the Infant Room at the center.  The same determination when she learned to crawl was evident as she pumped her legs on the swings of the playground.

This goes to show that children’s memories can get hazy, but it is all still in there.

One of the teachers recognized my last name, and mentioned he had actually graduated high school in class with my oldest son, whose next birthday will be age 28.
Another teacher remembered middle son in her class, and cannot believe he is already in a Master’s program.  This is her last year of teaching, retirement will be welcome.

In Social Studies 6^th grade level, the topic is Ancient Greece.  Although the lesson is the same, the plans by individual teachers get into it from different angles.
For one class period, I sat in a corner with a list of the letters, and English pronunciations, of the Greek alphabet.  One by one, students came over to “review” with me by reciting the letters out loud.  There’s going to be a test early next week.

My best friend growing up on the same street was first generation Greek.  Her parents sent her to Greek School, in the basement of the Greek Orthodox Church, where the priest taught classes in how to read and write the Greek language.  I attended a few times with my friend, but just never caught it inside my head.
Here I was, 40 years later, listening and assisting students speaking phonetically from Alpha, past Omicron, all the way through Omega.

One girl mentioned that her mom really loves the movie _My Big Fat Greek Wedding_ (look in Wikipedia)

This conjured up in my mind’s eye a picture of the handsome John Corbett, the beau in the movie, and whose latest gig is the voiceover for Applebee’s commercials on tv and radio.  Wonder if he’s gonna put out some new music soon?

This morning, Husband and I went scouting for a DVD player to set up for viewing near the treadmill.
Our trip reminded me very much of the time we were ready to purchase speakers for the stereo.  We have different standards for what we want in equipment, and it is very difficult to find everything in one package.

Well, I don’t know where I was going with all this.  It’s not like I was writing it for a college professor to grade or anything.

I do have some household chores to do, and a bookmark to crochet.
I should probably leave the chair rest awhile.

~~love and Huggs, Diane