The Retarded Years

A Minnesota teacher asked her young pupils how they spent their vacation.

One child wrote the following:

We always used to spend the holidays with

Grandma and Grandpa.

They used to live here in a big brick house,

but Grandpa got retarded and they moved to Florida

and now they live in a place with a lot of other

retarded people.

They live in a tin box and have rocks painted green

to look like grass.

They ride around on big tricycles and wear name tags

because they don't know who they are anymore.

They go to a building called a wrecked center,

but they must have got it fixed, because it is all right now.

They play games and do exercises there, but they don't

do them very well.

There is a swimming pool, too, but they all jump up

and down in it with their hats on.

I guess they don't know how to swim.

At their gate, there is a doll house with a little

old man sitting in it. He watches all day so nobody can escape.

Sometimes they sneak out.

Then they go cruising in their golf carts.

My Grandma used to bake cookies and stuff,

but I guess she forgot how.

Nobody there cooks, they just eat out.

And they eat the same thing every night: Early Birds.

Some of the people can't get past the man in the

dollhouse to go out.

So the ones who do get out bring food back to the

wrecked center and call it pot luck.

My Grandma says Grandpa worked all his life to earn

his retardment and says I should work hard so I can

be retarded some day, too.

When I earn my retardment I want to be the man

in the doll house.

Then I will let people out so they can

visit their grandchildren.

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