On Monday we got an assignment. We had to write a paper about a family member or pet. We had to turn it in on Friday (today), complete with with photo. I chose to write about Forty-Niner, my goldfish. The hardest part was taking a picture of him-- he would zip into the plants whenever he saw the camera. This morning we read our papers in front of the class. No one understood about his name, though. Last year I did a bunch of “California History” and learned all about the california gold rush forty-niners. But this was Iowa, and I was the only one who knew a ton of california history. Some of the boys knew who the forty-niners were, though. We had an interesting conversation during recess. Here is how it went.
Boy: “I didn’t know you liked football.”
Me: “What?”
Boy: “You sure must like football if you named your goldfish after a football team.”
Me: “Forty-Niner?!? I named him after the forty-niners, not some dumb football team!”
Boy: “That’s what I said, you named him after the San Francisco forty-niners, the football team.”
So I ended up explaining about who the forty-niners really were. I wish I’d written about Blackie instead.
