Dale Carnegie's teachings were an important part of my high school and college years!
From an early age I was expected to attend endless events where my Father was the guest
speaker. Through hours of wiggling and half listening, I learned that you could make a difference
in the world if you could speak so people really listened to your ideas.
My first speech has been relived through my friend's voices for years. It was emotional for me but
now I sense it was emotional for them since it is locked in their memories. (sorry to say) We were in
Mr. Schinderle's class at Kellogg Elementary ending our 6th grade year. Next year we would move
onto junior high, we were long overdue to learn how to give a book report according to Mr.
Schinderle.
My friends and I were so self-conscious in those years. It was an important time, we were
each learning about boys, love songs and going steady (for a day if that long). None of us had kissed
a boy but it was all we talked about at slummer parties.
Mr. Schinderle announced to the class, "Whoever goes first today will get an automatic A!" The only
thing I heard was A! 6th grade book report 1969 To my surprise he called on me. My whole body was
trembling and my mind was racing. With my parent's advice, I had practiced my speech in the
bathroom mirror at least a 100 times. This was different. Mike Earl and Mike Battson, the cutest boys in
the whole 6th grade, were sitting in the front. I slowly walked to the front of the room. By the looks
on my friend's faces they were waiting with
nervous
tension for their turn. To this day I do not think anyone heard a word I said due to nerves. Of course
Mr. Schinderle was listening and paying attention. With poise and fake confidence I raced through
my report. As I was nearing my conclusion, the emotions were building inside my mind. Just before the
last sentence, I burst into tears. Sobbing, I finished and went to my seat. But I did get an A!!!
My 6th grade book report was on the following book.
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Seventeenth Summer
by Maureen Daly
College-bound Angie Morrow falls in love for the first time in the perennially popular Seventeenth Summer by Maureen Daly (1942), written while the author was still in college herself. Diary-like entries depict the trials and tribulations of adolescent amour. Ages 12-17
Years later that book report speech has continuously haughted me. Two of my friends, Ella Jane
Bell-Greemam and Julie Lawrence Weingartner have repeated the story for every new boy that came
into my life. My husband and children have heard it so many times and love to use it to put me in my
place.
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