A First Grade Memory

I wrote this for my class and it's a memory from 1st grade.

The Pokemon Cards

            One pop culture figure of the 90’s was the trading card. The vast majority of children didn’t know that they were from Japan, but they knew it was from a cartoon.

           

   Some of the cards were rare enough to be compared with the Holy Grail and once you had one of those cards you were elated beyond measure.

           

      To have those rare, gilded cards were worth any measure needed to obtain them. I guess that is why my where stolen.

           

   I would be lucky to remember when this happened. It could have easily been the spring of 2000 or the fall of 1999, either way trading cards where still hot.

           

      I was sitting in class looking through the stack I had brought with me. At one point I became bored and started to play with the rubber band. I

placed it on the corner of my desk and pulled back. It flew out of my grip

and unto the floor; I hadn’t meant that to happen.

           

The teacher took the cards from me along with the rubber band and placed them on the top of a bookcase. He told me I could have them back after school.

When school ended I went to the bookcase and ran my hand off the top (I was too small to see the top). I screeched for five minutes and gave up. This was when I knew that they had to be stolen.

           

My pride of the stack was one of a dragon. I had showed it to a girl and she bugged me for them and I kept saying no. I knew then that she had to have stolen them.

           

I left that day ironically nonchalant, and I had every reason to; they were my brother’s cards to begin with.

 

Reviews

[Knuckles]

I enjoyed the ending of this piece, and completely empathise having lost my collection of cigarette in a rudimentary gambling game when I was seven.

[Tina Kline]

Great story and ending. Trading cards seem to come in and out of fashion. Once upon a time it was batman cards that kids would get when with a stick of gum in the pack. I really enjoyed your first grade memory.

[Sunflower 20]

great write! i can relate to this piece very well, and it brought me back to being a kid again, good job :)

[Dinesh Sairam]

Great ending. One has to see how these silly 'cards' would mean to a child. And you did a mighty good job at that! True experience in the simplest words -- The best!

I used to collect (Still have them) Pokemon Trading Cards, Tazos and "Jenga" Cards. So I guess I can relate. Of course, I've lost many of them at school while trying to show them off to my "contemporary collectors". I felt very bad when even one of them is lost or broken. Now they're just a bunch of stuff sitting at the back of my cupboard. Nostalgia, indeed.

PS. Now, I collect books.

Keep writing.

[trainwreck]

This was awesome! I love the ending and I really love the way you tied everything together.
One very small grammar error: "where" should be "were" and "my" should either be "mine or "my cards."
Still, great write. I remember this pretty clearly.

[TJ]

Haha loved the ending bahahaha I actaully laughed out loud! Wonderful memory