Back in Grade 2, I remember having to
research and then present our projects on
Canadian capital cities. We were all nervous about
sharing our findings with one another. Natalie Adams was at the top of the list so she would go first and I had the first
rush of thanks in my lifetime that my last name starts with an S.
Natalie had chosen
Regina to study and she unfolded a large
posterboard on her desk at the front of the
class. On it she'd glued
photocopied encyclopedia pictures and photos of
a small city among fields of wheat, flat
farmland and incredible sunsets for us to see.
Across the top of her project, she had written with a thick nibbed
magic marker VAGINA, SASKATCHEWAN.
I remember reading it and I became
embarassed immediately. She spoke about the city's population, some of the industries and the characteristics of the
city and every time she meant to call the city by its proper name, she said
vagina.
I was not alone in my feelings of embarassment, as the teacher eventually stopped Natalie in her presentation. She
corrected her and urged her to go on and we snickered in relief, but Natalie's posterboard was the only one that did not go up on our class' bulletin board.
I wonder how my teacher felt when she mentioned that Saskatchewan's population is mainly concentrated in Vagina...