One of my earliest memories

One of my earliest memories is of my grandmother (a teacher) who took me on a tour of her work one summer and stopped at a door. She said "This is kinder-garden. This is where you will be going to school next year." I remember looking at the door and imagining behind it a bunch of little garden rows. Of course you would start with gardening! Then when it is time to learn math we will already have something to add up. I can't tell you how disappointed I was the next year when all we did was a lot of paper work. I kept waiting for the day when the paperwork would finish and they would take us out to the garden.


Once my grandmother came over for a visit and we were playing army in the yard. She came running out of the house and said "Stop that! Don't you know what you play as children is what you will become when you grow up?" I had just been killed and was lying on the ground. I remember looking up and thinking I'll probably grow up to do paperwork.


All these different areas of knowledge. It is impossible for someone to be the renaissance ideal in the modern world. A person who is a doctor, lawyer, engineer, and scientist all rolled into one. What is it now? Eight hundred degrees just within the field of engineering alone. I was just formulating my thesis that only a tight group of people, a small community, could collectively equal the renaissance ideal when I heard about D&D.


School had all these different areas of knowledge but never brought them together. In role playing I found a use for all of my knowledge. In fact I started learning more. I was quickly surprised to find that no matter how much we learned, there was always more. My math grades started going up. In role playing I finally found a single use for all that school had to offer. Not only that, but a group to share it with. Role playing was the first thing I had ever seen where everyone would get up, turn off the TV, and the radio, sit down around a table and actually listen to each other.

I would also get to create gardens.

Mike

reply to post by mikegrouchy


One of the things I have noticed throughout my travels in life is that smaller towns cultivate the relationships that you talk about much more easily than cities. Cities just have to many distractions.

While smaller communities may have all the bells and whistles of a larger city, There is more than likely only one such business. The community is basically held hostage as the services are the only ones around.

I learned about welding, basic construction, plumbing, car repair from friends, not a formal school, I in turn taught the things I know.

And at night over a couple beers and a game of cards we kept teaching each other, usually in a humorous manner as we pointed out the mistakes we had made in life.

I have come to realize that I must have missed the boat on role playing games.... Apparently I was prime material (hindsight), but the few times I was invited I declined. Is 28 too old to start!?!?