Mrs. Paul and a Classic Revisited

Mrs. Paul was my 7th grade English teacher and every day she wore a dress, nylons, and tennis shoes. When Whit came out in this outfit I was immediately reminded of her and an entire year of diagramming sentences. That was so useful to learn since I use it all the time. Right now I am looking at these sentences and breaking them down. I am identifying the verbs, nouns, pronouns, adverbs, adjectives, etc. I would hate to use an adverb in place of an adjective. It is terribly embarrassing to screw up. The English language can be such a bugger, if you know what I mean! No really it was good to learn, I know the difference between borrow and lend which seems to be tough for many people and I can correctly conjugate verbs, even the irregular verbs.

This last week I decided I would read A Tale of Two Cities again. I read it in 10th grade and remembered enjoying it. All I remembered about the book was that two people looked alike, there was a grave robber, and a lot of knitting going on. Other than that my memory was pretty blank. As I read the book I kept thinking to myself that either 12 years had clouded my memory or I just didn't understand it the first time. I did enjoy it and in another 12 years I should be able to remember much more of the plot since I know I understood it this time. The other book that I really enjoyed that year was The Count of Monte Cristo. I'll have to read this one again and use it as a benchmark for whether time or just my lack of understanding was the cause of my memory lapse.