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At times Shawn seemed to learn too much. For instance, when
the school had a safety session in 1984 about what to do in an emergency,
Shawn really paid attention. That afternoon Sylvia heard a knock on
the front door. When she answered, she found a couple of police
officers who asked if we had young girl in the house. Sylvia replied
that we did not have a girl but we did have a young boy. The police
said they had gotten a 911 call that a stranger was in the house.
Sylvia was sure that it could not have been Shawn because he was upstairs
playing in his room. However, when the police went upstairs to
investigate, Shawn was not in his room. He was in the master bedroom
with the phone still in his hand! He just wanted to see if 911 really
worked. |
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Shawn also seemed to find novel ways of entertaining himself
both at school and at home. One morning in 1984 Shawn told us that the
school was collecting money for United Way. We did not have any small
bills so we gave Shawn a twenty from which to make the donation. The
teacher gave Shawn the change from the twenty that he was supposed to bring
home. But when the school bus came to our street, Shawn was not on it.
We all freaked out. Sylvia was calling everyone she knew looking for
Shawn, including the police. I'm sure they remembered us from the 911
incident but they started looking for him anyways. I got in the car
and traced the normal bus route from the school to home. No Shawn
anywhere! Now we were really getting worried. Finally, the
police found Shawn walking on a street in a totally different part of town
about three miles from the school. Apparently, Shawn had devised a
plan to put the money he was carrying to good use. Instead of riding
the bus home, he was going to walk home so he could buy some items for his
dog Dolly. Somehow he remembered a store that was on the north side of
town and actually walked there from school. He did not buy anything
for himself, but picked out some dog food, treats, and a toy for Dolly.
The checkout clerk thought he was a bit young to be shopping by himself and
asked where his parents were. He said that they were waiting outside,
paid for the items and pushed the cart out the store. He attempted to
push that cart home but had trouble getting it up the hill, so he parked the
cart behind a tree. He would have to come back for it later.
While walking home a older woman saw him walking alone and attempted to
approach him to see if he was lost. Of course, Shawn viewed her as a
stranger and immediately crossed to the other side of the street.
Apparently the woman called the police and when they found him, Shawn was
about half way home. We had Shawn show us where he had been and could
not believe that he had walked all that way. Amazingly, he remembered
exactly where the shopping cart was and it was still there with all the
goodies inside. |
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I believe it was that same year that Shawn convinced us to
put a small Christmas tree in his room. He wanted to make sure that
Santa Claus could find him. He also wanted to put Christmas lights on
the tree but we thought that would be too dangerous. Instead, we let
Shawn keep a small table lamp on to illuminate the tree. That night
Shawn came to our bedroom complaining that he couldn't breath. As soon
as we awoke, we could smell the smoke. When I went into his room, the
smoke was so thick you could hardly see. Then I saw the problem.
Shawn had draped a t-shirt over the table lamp because it was too bright.
Of course it began to smolder and we were only seconds away from a major
fire. We had to open the windows on that frigid December night to
clear out all the smoke. Surprisingly, Santa still managed to find
Shawn that year. I guess he just followed the plume of smoke. |
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Back in school, Shawn was back to his old tricks.
During one of his breaks, Shawn managed to stuff a bunch of paper towels
down a sink drain. The plugged drain caused quite a mess. As a
punishment, the principal made Shawn help unplug the mess. Great idea, show
Shawn how to take apart the plumbing! |
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The next summer we decided to "occupy" Shawn by
enrolling him in soccer. We could tell his heart really wasn't in it.
He would chat with his friends in the backfield until the other team
approached. The he would run up on the ball, kick it up the field, and
go back to his conversation. His favorite part was getting a snack
after the game. |
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The following summer, we tried to interest him in softball.
I invested in a couple mitts and a bunch of baseballs. I took him
across the street to practice, but he would rather play on the monkey bars.
During the game, his favorite technique would be to stand as low as he could
to force the pitchers to walk him. Of course he wanted to play left
field where he could examine all the plants and flowers growing.
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The next year Shawn tried track. That did not go over very
well either. He would get frustrated when he put in a good effort in a
relay but one of his team members did not. But then again he never
wanted to practice so he rarely won any individual events either. He
would also get embarrassed when his mom or dad attended the meets. So
we knew this would not last long. At the end of the season, he said he
was finished with track. |
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The one sport that Shawn stuck with was Tae Kwon Do.
Shawn was small for his age and other children would pick on him. As a
way of building his self confidence, I suggested he try Tae Kwon Do.
He began in 1986 and stayed with that until he reached brown belt. He
very good at memorizing the "forms", perfecting the moves and could have
easily made black belt. But the organization that he belonged to had a
minimum waiting time before he could apply for advancement, so he eventually
quit. |
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In 1989 Shawn broke his arm. He claimed that he was at
the water fountain at school getting a drink when someone bumped into him.
He fell against the fountain and broke his forearm. It was not a
compound fracture but the doctor still wanted Shawn to be asleep when he set
the bone. Shawn liked the idea that he could pick different colored
casts each time the arm was recast. |
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After the cast came off, Shawn decided he would like to be
in the orchestra. The orchestra conductor convinced Shawn to try the
violin. I can't believe we actually went along with that idea. A
well played violin sounds heavenly. However, when a thirteen year old
is first learning to play, the sound is excruciating! Shawn did not
like to practice (and at times we were thankful for that) but he did seem to
like to perform. Shawn usually did fairly well in competitions and he
especially liked playing in the pit band for theater performances. |