You're More Retarded Than Monkeys in a Zoo

You're More Retarded Than Monkeys in a Zoo

A Statement Made to Me By One of My Teachers

1969

Yes, this nun said this to me, in front of the entire class and I had to practice great restraint not to ask just a few questions:

1- Are monkeys in the zoo more or less retarded than monkeys in the wild?

2- I didn't know that any monkeys were retarded. How did she know how retarded monkeys in the zoo are?

3- Am I retarded? No one told me I was.

4- What information does she have about my IQ as opposed to their IQ?Was a study done without my knowledge?

1969

1969
Woodbine Avenue

Overbrook

Philadelphia, PA

My age: 13-14

School- Merion Mercy Academy- 9^th grade.  I was assigned to the second rooster.  We were the weak academic students. School was a huge burden to me.  But my social life was picking up.  So all was not lost.

Work- I would baby sit for one night and to out and play with my friends on the other weekend night. I made a lousy $1/hour.  I hated this work.

music

Movies

Paint Your Wagon- I saw it with my family

Alice's Restaurant- I wasn't allowed to see it.

Midnight Cowboys- I wasn't allowed to see it.

If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium- I saw it with m family.  This movie fed my wanderlust for travel.

They Shoot Horse, Dont They- I know I saw this movie but I know I didn't understand all of it.

Easy Rider- I wasn't allowed to see it.

Butch Cassidy- I wasn't allowed to see it.

Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice- I wasn't allowed to see it.

I'm Curious Yellow- I wasn't allowed to see it.

Books- We read Greek Mythology in class and I liked it. We also read Shakespeare and I thought he was dreadful. I hated reading Romeo and Juliet but I loved the movie that came out a few years later.

We also read:

• Our Town
• House of Seven Gables
• To Kill A Mockingbird

Travels- Long Beach Island, NJ during the summer months.  My uncle had a home here and I would go there to visit with my cousin.

News Events-

• We walk on the moon.  I watched the event at my aunt’s house at the beach.  We sat around the small TV and listened and clapped as Neil Armstrong announced, “One small step for man, one giant step for mankind.”  I was so damn proud of our country.
• Race riots burdened our country.  I did not understand the complexities of this situation.

Family

• July-I got an FM radio for my birthday and the whole musical world opened up to me.
• July- I had a seizure, my second seizure in 10 months.  My parents handled this event with much more calmness as compared to the first one. I never had another seizure and no conclusion was ever determined as to why I had these two seizures.  But I stayed on medication until I was 18.
• oSeptember- my mother announced that she was pregnant.  Her last pregnancy was 11 years ago so she was shocked.  I was shocked that my parents were having sex.  It was a gross realization.