Part 1 of Tangerine was WILD! Was this a dream come true? – the earth opened up and swallowed Paul’s classroom! This was the ULTIMATE snow day, snow week, and snow month rolled into one!
Now of course we are all dedicated and passionate learners, and we wouldn’t really hope that our school would fall into a hole, and we know it would be expensive, and we wouldn’t want anyone to get hurt, but….
Tangerine IS weirder than it looks, and smells, and sounds, and feels. I can smell the muck fires burning, I can see the thunderstorms building, I can hear the earth opening up, I can feel the sorrow of the Costellos when they lose their son. I can also feel the hope for a new start that Paul feels when he sees the opportunity to leave the strangeness of Lake Windsor Middle School, and his IEP, behind him for Tangerine Middle.
I made two moves when I was a kid. The first one was when I was in first grade, and the way I felt is still with me. Everyone was new, I was nerdy, I was picked on. I still remember one kid, named Bobby, who used to pick a fight with me every day as soon as we crossed the street on the way home. I still get that sick feeling in my stomach when I think about it, and that first move happened in 1964.
I think Paul has his Bobby, or I had my Erik. The person you hated to see, but you knew he wouldn’t go away. He would be there every day waiting to make himself feel better by making you feel worse. The crazy thing is I ended up having Bobby for a friend several years later, but what happened after that I don’t recall. I made another move to a new school in seventh grade and maybe he disappeared from my life then.
Paul Fisher is going to get a new start, on his own terms, at Tangerine Middle.
Now of course we are all dedicated and passionate learners, and we wouldn’t really hope that our school would fall into a hole, and we know it would be expensive, and we wouldn’t want anyone to get hurt, but….
Tangerine IS weirder than it looks, and smells, and sounds, and feels. I can smell the muck fires burning, I can see the thunderstorms building, I can hear the earth opening up, I can feel the sorrow of the Costellos when they lose their son. I can also feel the hope for a new start that Paul feels when he sees the opportunity to leave the strangeness of Lake Windsor Middle School, and his IEP, behind him for Tangerine Middle.
I made two moves when I was a kid. The first one was when I was in first grade, and the way I felt is still with me. Everyone was new, I was nerdy, I was picked on. I still remember one kid, named Bobby, who used to pick a fight with me every day as soon as we crossed the street on the way home. I still get that sick feeling in my stomach when I think about it, and that first move happened in 1964.
I think Paul has his Bobby, or I had my Erik. The person you hated to see, but you knew he wouldn’t go away. He would be there every day waiting to make himself feel better by making you feel worse. The crazy thing is I ended up having Bobby for a friend several years later, but what happened after that I don’t recall. I made another move to a new school in seventh grade and maybe he disappeared from my life then.
Paul Fisher is going to get a new start, on his own terms, at Tangerine Middle.
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