Shelburne Community School

The Journal
Aliza Amsden

July 24, 1982
I was sitting at my desk listening to the rain steadily tap on the roof. We had a big house but because of the amount of people in the house I had to stay on the “top floor.” That is what my mom called it to try and make me feel better but we all knew it was the attic. I hated the attic with all its spider webs and bugs. But on a day like today in a week like this week the attic was my favorite room. It was cozy when it is raining because it is such a small place, and also a place where I can get away from my crazy family members.
Jessica

Hi my name is Jessica and all I would like to say is…
“Jess get down here right now,” my mom screamed up the stairs. “Your family came to visit you and what do you do? Go hide in your room. Jessica Anne Isabel Landth come down here right now.
“Mom please stop yelling at me I’m coming”
“I don’t hear footsteps up there.”
My mother was the kind of person who was very and I mean very strict but still had the average snotty teenager in her. She had to have everything in order but was definitely a brat. She liked talking back to me and my brothers and sisters when she knew that we were mad at her but were trying to be nice.
“Jess, why are you up in your room again? Your family loves you and wants to spend time with you. Besides you never get to see them so it is nice to have them here.”
“I know mom but cousin Laura Jean made me mad, and I needed time to calm down and write in my journal.”
This seemed to satisfy my mom probably because she was a writer. She started making me keep a journal when I first learned how to write but now I enjoy writing in it.
“Okay, well then I understand but you really should come and visit with your family.”
“Fine I will come down but we all need to find away to stop fighting because it really gets on my nerves when my cousins yell at me.

***

I grinned, the beach was huge. Driving there was definitely worth it, even though it took more than two hours. Too bad we were only staying there for two days. We were staying in New Jersey after our trip to Hershey, Pennsylvania.
The waves crashed on the shore. I was scared because this beach had the biggest waves I had ever seen. The waves were at least three feet above my dad’s head! It was definitely not a calm beach. It didn’t help that some guy had recently died on a beach not too far from here. There was no chance that my mom, brother or grandmother would get in. But there was no chance that I would let us do anything else. We came for the ocean and that was what I was going to do; play in the water and have lunch on the beach, spend all day in the sun, and my brother and I were going to have as much sugar as we could get.
I waited for a break in the big waves. Once my dad and I got out far enough the large waves came in again. The first wave flipped us over catching me off guard and tossing me under the surface of the water. The second broke right on us. I did a summersault under water and scraped my body on sharp rocks. The third wave appeared and I dove into it, the water crashed and raged above me but down here it was perfectly calm. I came out the other side. It had tossed my dad all the way back to the beach.
I climbed back to the sand to get something to eat. I gasped. The sand was as hot as fire. I asked my dad if he wanted to go back in the water. He said once he warmed up a little. I sighed. The water wasn’t even that cold, not like Maine. But there was no changing his mind; parents are as stubborn as mules. We repeated this routine several times, more or less staying in the water and not getting washed up on the beach. This is the greatest beach I have ever been to we have got to come back here again.

Green is the color of the sun catcher in my window.
Green is the color of the prickly cactus that sits on my dresser.
Green is the color of my favorite shirt.
Green is the color of my comfy sweatshirt.
Green is the color of my soft, warm quilt.
Green is the color of the United States on my map, hanging on my wall.
Green is the color of the sticky pine needles that fall in the yard.
Green is the color of the fresh, dewy grass that the cows munch on.
Green is the color of St. Patrick’s Day, the day after my birthday.
Green is the color of ency.
Green is the color your face turns when you get sick.
Green is the color of the Green Mountains.
I love green.

I admire my twenty – three year old brother Nate because he is in college and he is majoring in philosophy. Some day I would like to be in college and graduate also. He is a really good skier. It’s really cool snowboarding with him. He is so fast it’s hard to keep up.

Red is Red

By Rachel Coleman
Shelburne Community School, Grade 5

Red is the color of the brightest ruby ever found.
Red is the color of a hot day with all your friends eating strawberry popsicles on the sandy beach, as they melt faster down your arm.
Red is the color of the last second of the game as the crowd goes wild when you shoot and score the winning basket of the game of basketball.

Gray

By Ryan Bogue
Shelburne Community School, Grade 5

Gray is cement hard and cold.
Gray is elephants with floppy ears.
Gray is clouds fluffy and fog.
Gray is sadness alone and nothing.
Gray is noon blocking out the suns warm rays.
Gray is the lonely breeze chilling all in its grasps.
Gray is the tiny mouse living in small gaps of a house.
Gray is the color of those old cartoons.
Gray is the color of sorrow.
Gray is the color of a rainy day.
Gray is the color of stingrays.

Last winter I learned how to snowboard.
It was pretty hard but I got the hang of it.
Soon I was riding chairlifts and going down easy trails.
I especially liked snowboarding with my friends and family.
I loved (and still do) terrain parks, going off boxes and jumps.
I feel like I’m flying when I go off a jump.
Riding down fresh, powdery snow is the best.

The Ivy Hole
Prologue

(Refrain)
Sugar sugar sugar a yeah yeah
Sugar sugar sugar a nah nah
Hyper sweetness, sweet tongue
Sugar sugar sugar la love.

(Verse #1) Sugar in the morning sugar at night
Sugar when the day is bright. Here
And there and everywhere people love
suGAR SUGar SUgar suGar sweetness as
can bee. That’s what sugars all about bout
bout sweet as can bEE WOOOOOOOO

My body was suddenly tight! I tried to free myself. I was like little ropes. When I tried to look around I felt a tug in my front side. I closed my eyes for I knew who it was. I braced myself for the third tug, I felt it. I said, “Hello Fiona, Mya, and Olivia.”

White is all the colors.
White is the color of snow.
White is the color of the clouds.
White is the color of sheeps wool.
White is everywhere,
White is beautiful.
White is where heaven is.
White is sad, yet happy.
White is life.

When you suddenly cry at school.
When you walk into the bathroom, and
see that someone is in there.
When you get sent to the principal's office.
When you suddenly get yelled at in public.
You miss your school bus, and are late
,and you walk into an assembly and have to
explain to the whole school why you are late.
Yet no one believes you.
How do you feel?
Sad? Happy?

When you suddenly cry at school.
When you walk into the bathroom, and
see that someone is in there.
When you get sent to the principal's office.
When you suddenly get yelled at in public.
You miss your school bus, and are late
,and you walk into an assembly and have to
explain to the whole school why you are late.
Yet no one believes you.
How do you feel?
Sad? Happy?

The world has changed.
You can smell it.
Exhaust pollutes the air.
You can see it.
Grass is now concrete.
You can hear it.
Cars growl more than birds chirp.
You can feel it.
Our very air has a more sickly touch.
The world has changed.
Time is the cause.
Time is consuming us,
As time consumes itself.
Soon time will vanish.
When it does, we will vanish too.
No more land.

Lost Traveler

By Hila Saxe
Shelburne Community School, Grade 5

I am cold through my
Heart to my bone.
I am a lost traveler
A long way from home.
I am lost in a bog
Surrounded by thick,
Blinding fog.
My heart pounds and pounds
And in the distance
I hear the baying of demon hounds.
My imagination has gone wild
As my ears pick up the sound
Of the crying of a child.
I will never get away
If only, if only
The hounds wouldn’t bay.
Oh, my head is in a whirl
And I’m hearing sounds
To make my hair curl.
How will I survive?
No plant here can
Even try to thrive.
But there--can it be?
Is it a light, or are my
Eyes playing tricks on me?
Yes, it is a little patch of white light
Which means a way out.
I’m tired of the sounds of the night.
To get out of this bayou
Would be pure heaven.
I am now no longer blue.
I go to the little bobbing
Patch of white, skin tingling
My head throbbing
At the luck of it all
To find a guide out
Of the demon’s own hall.

Mud is brown.
Mud is slimy.
Little insects live in the mud.
Snails, slugs, and all kinds of worms.
It oozes out of my fingers.
Sometimes it’s sticky like jelly,
And sometimes it’s wet like slush.
Little kids go out to play in the mud,
Only to come back in with dirty
Mud-covered faces and hands,
Leaving mud tracks and fingerprints
Everywhere, and get yelled at by

Mud

By Hila Saxe
Shelburne Community School, Grade 5

The oozing brown mud
Slides like a snake
Into my shoes.
The smell of it,
Wet, bitter and sweet,
Gentle, tangy,
All at the same time.
As I walk, brown rain flying
Up, not down,
Splatters my upper body.
Already there is
Dry, crusty mud
Clinging to my face,
And now there is more.
Brown puddles
Litter the ground.

Sky Elements

By Chris Jones
Shelburne Community School, Grade 5

Your elegant wispy clouds drift like a bird gliding through the sky.
Sometimes your tears drip from your face and lands upon the

When the Wheel of Time turns,
It destroys tree, root, and fern.
As new and old come to pass,
Life becomes naught but ash.
And one day the world will end.
Fish, birds, deer, and men
Will vanish until life begins again.
Cloud, shadow, light, mist,
Tree, water, soil, and sky,
Runner, flier, swimmer, crawler,
None are safe from time.
All will fade.
Time destroys all, and

When the Wheel of Time turns,
It destroys tree, root, and fern.
As new and old come to pass,
Life becomes naught but ash.
And one day the world will end.
Fish, birds, deer, and men
Will vanish until life begins again.
Cloud, shadow, light, mist,
Tree, water, soil, and sky,
Runner, flier, swimmer, crawler,
None are safe from time.
All will fade.
Time destroys all, and

It was the day before the championship game. My team had made it. I was very excited. I had never played in a championship game before. My team’s name was the C.S.B Hawks. We had played 6 games. This game would be are 7th game we play in this tournament. We were going to play Hartford. They’re really good and very BIG, as well.

I remember being in the airport with my great grandmother. I had never been to Vermont. I didn’t even know what Vermont was. I came here on a really big plane. I was going to meet my new mom & dad. My great grandmother had a funny kind of leash around me so I wouldn’t wonder off. When I was in the airport my mom heard my great grandmother holler out my name, “Devron get back right now”.

I remember being in the airport with my great grandmother. I had never been to Vermont. I didn’t even know what Vermont was. I came here on a really big plane. I was going to meet my new mom & dad. My great grandmother had a funny kind of leash around me so I wouldn’t wonder off. When I was in the airport my mom heard my great grandmother holler out my name, “Devron get back right now”.

“Are we almost there!?” I yelled. “I have a stomach ache! It hurts! When will we get there?”
“We are almost there,” my mom said. Then she went back to her conversation with my dad.
“Elspeth move over!” I cried.
“No!”
“Mom, Elspeth won’t move!” She ignored me.

Boom! Wow! That scared me. Before he shot it was running through the field. Bang! My dad fired, but missed. He fired again, only this time he hit it. It was still alive, so bang he fired again. Yes, he got it! He got a deer. Man, I was so scared when he shot the first time, that I shook the camera that I was using to tape it.

Sitting on the hard, cold, concrete steps and looking at the huge guitar at the entrance of the Aerosmith’s Rockin Rollercoaster, I was wondering if I could really build up the courage to go on it. There I sat for at least ten minutes until my dad and sister got off the ride. “That was the best rollercoaster I have ever been on!” said my dad. “Do you want to go on it?” he asked me.

Sitting on the hard, cold, concrete steps and looking at the huge guitar at the entrance of the Aerosmith’s Rockin Rollercoaster, I was wondering if I could really build up the courage to go on it. There I sat for at least ten minutes until my dad and sister got off the ride. “That was the best rollercoaster I have ever been on!” said my dad. “Do you want to go on it?” he asked me.

“Tommy! Time for bed.”
“But Mom, its only 9:00.” I slowly walk up the stairs and get in to my bright orange pajamas. I jump in bed, switch off the light, and fall asleep.

I zip up my jacket and slip on my boots. I was finely going to learn how to snowboard. I’d been planning for such long time. Zoom! I was off to Middlebury Snow Bowl!