Adventures of a Hyperlexic Country Bumpkin

My Mom used to tell me that when I was around two, her and my Father would have date nights playing Scrabble. She said I would point to the pieces and accurately identify a good portion of them, much to their astonishment. I remember talking to her about it later and crediting “Wheel of Fortune”, since they would say the letter a bunch of times and it would usually appear on the screen right after. The mind can be a funny thing, on what it picks up and how!

The first time I read aloud, I was about four years old. I was sitting at that same table my folks used to play Scrabble at. I had my Mom’s grocery list in hand. She was cooking supper and clanging dishes around, cleaning as she went. My back was to her and she heard me chattering, which was just the mode I always existed in!

She asked me what I was talking about and I told her I was talking about her list and read the words “Hershey’s” and “Kit Kat”. Her eyes grew wide and she tested me reading a few other things on the list and the Reader’s Digest.

Not long after that, my Dad took me to a school for an entrance exam. The principal showed me a drawing with a bunch kids playing on a playground and asked me to tell a story about what was happening. I naturally came up with whole long yarn!

School was a very interesting experience. I cried and cried for the first couple of weeks. I hated the bright, noisy lights. The people were not very nice. It was a whole ordeal. But, I finally settled into Kindergarten. In first grade, I checked out the Little Women, when there was a teacher subbing for the librarian. When it was my turn that we to return my book, I explained that I needed more time to finish it. The librarian sternly told me that that was not option. She was vexed with me for checking out a book that the older kids might need. I told her I was enjoying it and wanted to keep reading it. She insist that while she was so thrilled that I enjoyed my Mom reading it to me, but I needed to leave it for the older kids.

In order to be able read interesting things and satisfy the librarian’s insistence that I not elevate myself over shiny photos, I discovered great books in the reference section with glossy photos of snakes and giraffes and all sorts of other critters. I was able to learn about their environments, proper names, and history of their discovery. The first book I ever bought was at the School Book Fair. I was about The Titanic! Not only was it sufficiently glossy picture book, to not capture the librarian’s unwanted attention, it had really awesome facts!

I have come by the nick name Know-It-All honest! Even in my twenties, coworkers nicknamed me Rachel-pedia. I was always the worker they would sit new people who had a ton of questions. In my thirties, in Mom groups I earned the nickname The Credible Hulk. I am quite interested to see what new nicknames find me as I enter my forties in the not-so-distant future!

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