We Breed Hobbits
Today I took a good look at Jonas in line at Kindergarten. He is one of the shortest kids in his class. He can’t really help it; neither Chris or I are very tall, although we both have these massive, canoe-like feet that our pediatricians used to examine and make statements about like, “This child is going to be six feet tall someday!” It never happened. We both grew up to be Hobbits and now we are raising our Hobbit children.
Seeing how short he was also brought back a very sharp memory from grade school (one that remains so vivid probably because it is brought up at every family gathering I attend-and a few I don’t, I dare to guess). I was in second grade and we had height and weight day in gym class. It was a big deal to be the biggest or the smallest, the heaviest or the lightest. There was no stigma attached to any label, just the fact that you got to be the “est” of anything was very cool.
Now, the gym teachers were always very careful to give the old lecture on how these results were private and nobody’s business, which, to a room of seven year olds couldn’t have made the information spread faster. Within minutes of the examinations we all swapped numbers until we had everyone in a row, tallest to shortest, fattest to skinniest. Being little kids, we all really wanted to look bigger, so those labeled tallest were, in our eyes, pretty cool. I was no where near the tallest. In fact, I won the opposite award. I was not disappointed though, because I had trumped the others in another way.
I was very, very proud to announce to my parents at the dinner table that night, “I’m the shortest, but I weigh the most!”
ROFL!! sweet!
Comment by Lee W — September 8, 2007 @ 10:36 am
I remember those days well. I was always the awkward beanpole, tall & skinny. And I somehow became short and fat. Life just stinks like that sometimes
I love your blog.
Comment by Amy G — September 8, 2007 @ 11:00 am
That’s two “est”s - excellent!
Comment by Sarah — September 8, 2007 @ 11:11 am
AWESOME photo - and what a cute story!!
Comment by Zarah — September 8, 2007 @ 12:04 pm
The double whammy!! That’s HILARIOUS!!
Comment by kirsty — September 8, 2007 @ 2:37 pm
Ha ha ha ha ha ha, thanks for that one, it’s fantastic!
Comment by Lisa — September 8, 2007 @ 3:47 pm
I had to chuckle at hobbits! It was my son’s official nickname at one of his jobs! I though he would never get taller than me 5′4″ but he finally made it to 5′7 1/2″. Thanks for the chuckle
Comment by cyndy — September 8, 2007 @ 4:14 pm
LOL!
Comment by Helena — September 9, 2007 @ 8:29 am
You are so funny. If only we could still say such things and be genuinely proud of it.
Cute story!
Comment by Azul — September 9, 2007 @ 8:11 pm
Hey, as long as I’m not the smelliest, the hairiest or the ugliest I’m cool.
Comment by moosh in indy. — September 10, 2007 @ 4:22 pm
This could have been a story from my childhood. I was always the shortest but pretty stalky. The front-row-in-the-Christmas-program type of kid.
Comment by Crystal — September 11, 2007 @ 12:56 pm
Hi girl, thanks for commenting on my blog for the birthday giveaway! Good luck!
Comment by Amie — September 11, 2007 @ 5:40 pm
Built Round and Low to the Ground! HAHAHA!!! Great memory!
Comment by soapbox.SUPERSTAR — September 12, 2007 @ 7:59 am