Sunday Night With John: Hand-Me-Downs and A Funny Memory

The picture above is a little John Paul Derryberry attending his first ever day of school at Colebrook Elementary in the tiny town of Colebrook, Ohio.  This picture is back in my hands after I asked my mom and sister to send me some pictures of my childhood for a project I’m working on. Most people probably have vague recollections of their first day of school.  For me, the emotions of terror and fear I felt that day are burned into my memory forever.

My day started off alright. As you can tell from the picture I was cool waiting for the bus all by myself. I was a big boy and big boys wait for the bus by themselves. I don’t specifically remember getting on the bus or the last words of encouragement my mother gave me as I started my educational journey. It was when I sat down in my seat and put my little kindergarten hand in my brothers hand-me-down gray and green jacket that I felt something in my pocket.  I know I didn’t put anything in my jacket pocket that morning so I wondered what it could be. I curiously pulled my hand out of my jacket pocket grasping the item. To my amazement and terror, I was holding my sister’s underwear in my hand. I immediately jammed them back into my pocket as the thought that I was going to be known as the kid who brought his sister’s underwear school raced through my head.

I navigated the bus undiscovered and walked into my kindergarten classroom and found the hook with my name on it and hung up my coat, and backpack. I made sure to position the pocket with the underwear in it toward the wall and crammed my sister’s underwear as far into the pocket as I could. I spent the whole day with one eye on that coat making sure none of my classmates came within a foot of it. 

I made it through the day and hopped back onto the bus, the same place I made the discovery. I was antsy on the ride home because I was almost home free. As I got off the bus I let out a big sigh of relief, crisis diverted. I stormed my little kindergarten self into the house and began ranting and raving to my mom about never wearing hand-me-downs again. She was confused as to why I was so upset, until I pulled my sister’s underwear out from my jacket pocket. My mom burst into laughter and apologized for not checking my hand-me-down jacket a little better. It has been a story my family often tells to people meeting us.  By the way, we still don’t know how the underwear ended up in that jacket pocket.

That’s the thing about memory lane, it can take you back to places that carried such emotions. Or it can turn a once horrible memory into something retrospectively funny. Looking back  teaches us how to laugh at ourselves and it shows us the past isn’t fixed in stone. If you would have asked 5-year old John about his first day, he probably would have said it was horrible. If you ask me about it now, I would say it’s a funny story to share with others. Sometimes we need trips down memory lane to remind us how we have changed, or show us how our emotions from past events can morph to reveal what that moment meant over the long haul. Nothing is ever truly fixed in stone, even our past. We are allowed to change our minds, or change our emotions about an event after reflection. It’s how my sister’s underwear ended up being funny instead of humiliating.

Thank you for reading, and I invite to stay up on everything John Paul Derryberry  at  https://www.facebook.com/jpderryberry/