By amigoponc on Skatehive
I remember my first day of school as if it were yesterday At my age, lucid, I remember my first day of school as if it were yesterday. That first day of school at the San Jose Educational Unit, Caracas, Venezuela, was preceded by an event that marked me: the last of a series of four operations allowed me to see the world for the first time. It awakened in me a photographic memory that persists after more than six decades. Dressed in khaki, we lined up in order of height, boys on the right and girls on the left. In front of us stood the teachers of all grades and the flagpole. Following the baton, we sang the national anthem. Words of welcome. One day back in 1962-63. The classroom still smelled of fresh oil paint, a sky blue colour filling the room. We opened our backpacks, heavy with everything our parents had been asked to provide. Inside, the aroma of new pencils, the smell of wax crayons, plasticine and, of course, the smell of our mid-morning snack: an empanada, an orange and a sm