Page 17, Buds Best Years

After all the students parents had left the elementary school parking lot. Julia Thompson had her students take their desks by alphabetical by first in order starting with A and moving row by row to z. Then she did roll call. And just like Tommy Teletype did at software camp, when Julia called the name of each child she asked him or her to tell the class a little bit about themselves. For the outgoing kids this was an easy assignment but, for the shy kids like Bud's friend Samantha Willis it was an embarrassing and cheek reddening affair.

When Samantha's name was called and she said here she dreaded the next question. "So Samantha tell us a little about yourself.

"Yes, Mrs Thompson" Samantha said.

"Well fellow classmates I am from a foreign country. Its called Barter an its located in the Reward sea. Its a country where no paper money is exchanged for goods. An interesting fact is that paper money was outlawed in the 1800's. So it was a big culture shock to this country where paper money is common and used everyday though things are traded without money. Paper money is prevalent. In Barter my father was a blacksmith who traded his wares for food, family necessities. It was a good living. My mother was a home maker who was a dressmaker who gave the wedding dresses away for whatever the birds family had to trade. It was an idyllic life. My parents wanted to give capitalism a try so we moved to this country last year which was 1996 for all of you who don't remember.

The after the initial burst of outgoing her Samantha's face turned red and she stumbled over her words and started to look at the ground as her words struggled to speak.Though she had surprised herself with how easy the first part of her speech was.So she regained her confidence

It was difficult for my parents to get money to come to this country since money was outlawed in Barter. So they decided to give all our possessions away. The kept family pictures and clothes but, everything else they gave away. Though the law against paper money was routinely violated by my fellow countrymen my father was a law abiding man and refused to break the law no matter how ridiculous he may have believed it to be. So after giving away all are possessions by father put me in a wagon and we walked to the border of Barter. The country bordering Barter was called Honk Honk a ridiculous name for a serious country. In honk honk my father got a job as a sales clerk in a department store.

Working at the store he made enough money for a plane ticket to computer city. Since computer city let citizens of Barter easily immigrate to the city believing that the law against money unjust.

After a year in Honk Honk we flew to computer city and moved into an apartment in the downtown area. After the year in honk honk money was old hat.While in honk honk my mother became pregnant and a few months after we got her she had my sister Nancy. Now I am here. Thank you Mrs Thompson for allow me to share my story with the class". Samantha was surprised at how easy she was able to make her speech. She was now smiling in her pink floral print dress with her black hair in a bun. She took her seat amid applause from the other students.

"Thank you for your amazing story Samantha" Julia said. Julia was excited to hear the stores of her students. She keep going until she to to Bud's name. Bud was very excited to share the story of his life with his fellow classmates.

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