Word: grades
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Making the Grade...
...performers who influenced them--Chuck Berry, for example, is linked with saxophonist Louis Jordan. Other exhibits are devoted to important rock precursors, such as blues greats Lead Belly and Howlin' Wolf. There are plenty of intriguing curios on display as well--such as the Who drummer Keith Moon's grade school report card, saying he "is inclined to play the fool." There is flair in even the smallest detail: the building's ATMS look like jukeboxes. Mostly, however, the museum rises above Hard Rock Cafe-style gimmickry by showing respect for the music and its origins. Still, rock by nature...
Leonardo da Vinci stood on one end of the stage, Mickey Mantle on the other. The Mick seemed a little out of place in the company of Da Vinci, Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Laura Ingalls Wilder and Mahatma Gandhi, but this was my son's third-grade class biography project, titled Who Am I?, and an understanding teacher had allowed him to portray his favorite baseball player, a preference passed down like DNA from both his mother and his father. "I was born in Spavinaw, Oklahoma, in 1931," said this child born in New York City...
Left out of the third-grade presentation were Mantle's depression over the death of his father, at only 39, from Hodgkin's disease; his constant and fatalistic drinking; his bumpkinish trust in swindlers; and the indifferent treatment he gave his wife and four sons, one of whom, Billy, died last year at the age of 36, having suffered from Hodgkin's disease. In his later years, Mantle tried to atone for his sins, entering the Betty Ford Center, freely admitting his alcoholism and making peace with his sons. Mickey Jr., David and Danny were by his side when Mantle...
...falling just outside the top 20% of his class, which disqualified him for the training he wanted as a computer programmer. More striking are the descriptions of a likable youngster limned year after year in the handwritten evaluations of his teachers. Wrote a Mrs. Lane, who taught the fifth grade, for example: "Tim has been a pleasant, cooperative boy to work with this year. He was an active, contributing participant in all group activities--a real asset to this class. I'll miss...