The Years before High School

The Pre- Years

I was born in Clarksville, AR on January 5th, 1978 to Bobby and Sandra Mitchell at the Johnson County Hospital. I was slightly larger than the average baby in many regards. I made a lot of noise and had a particular odor about me. I also was taller and had more hair than most. The noise and hair have not changed .

My early childhood is typical of the childhood of a member of a farm family. I ran around in my diapers and then shorts when I was old enough. I soon became old enough that I could do some small things around the farm to help out. I could help to roll hay bales on the trailer when hauling hay. Also, I could help pick up rocks and work the garden. I could remember where things were placed and then bring them to my father. I soon graduated from that task.

A great deal of the farm work on our farm was/is accomplished by family members (makes sense economically). My father did most of the work but one of my cousins and one of my uncles on my mothers side of the family also helped a lot. My cousin, Travis Rutledge, would come over early in the morning to go fishing and then stay to help work cattle, move hay, work fence, and other jobs of that nature. His father, Monroe Rutledge, was the uncle that was a great help as well. After his daily job, Monroe would come by the farm to either pick Travis up or to help do some chores. They continue to help out to this day.

I soon reached an age to where I was of average size but still had a lot of energy. To take care of this energy, my parents would have me help chase the cattle or go run with the dogs in the pasture. Those were the days when I had energy. Nothing really changed until I reached Junior High and High School.

Junior High brought to me something that most others can relate to. The desire to rebel. I rebelled against several things but mainly my parents. I did not like how they ran things on the farm, how they did their taxes, how they organized the house, or how they cleaned the house. They had a simple retaliation method that works well. They told me if I didn't like it I could fix it or pay for it myself. I was told that I would have to work to buy the things that I wanted or things that I thought we needed to help organize the house and farm. I have had a job ever since. Having a job has helped develop in me a good work ethic but I can not see a significant improvement in how the house looks.

I also began to play football for the Junior High School. At that point in time, I was a good representative of what Coaches looked for in players. I was intelligent, fast, strong, and tall. The Junior High Years and before were the only years in which I could be considered tall by most of my class mates. Then they started to grow and out grew my measly 5'10" size.

I really enjoyed football. I imagine that the fact that we had a good team had something to do with this. My Seventh Grade team went undefeated and my Junior High team when I was in Ninth Grade went undefeated as well. We were a pretty decent team.

During Junior High, I was also allowed to take more science classes to begin to develop my mind in the path that I wanted to take. Medicine. I had several good science teachers but my favorite teachers in Junior High were the history and English teachers. Ms. Fikes, a new English Teacher at Clarksville during that time, was a teacher from the Little Rock area and had many new ways of teaching English to students that I was not use to. I soon adapted and learned to appreciate English as a class. I like the History professors for the reason that they made History interesting. A certain amount of comedy and perspective were added to every lesson to improve the retention of the information. I still remember details of history I learned from those classes.

I also enjoyed Mr. Ziegler and Coach Lewis' history classes. Both teachers enjoyed the area in which they were teaching and tried to bring their enthusiasm to the class room and instill it into the students. Mr. Ziegler has since gone on to become a Principal in the Clarksville School District while Coach Lewis continues to do what he likes. Teach and Coach.

This Page was Last Updated 01/23/01
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