My Larousse
I started studying French in Gr. 7. This was my paperback Larousse dictionary. I used it through to the end of Gr. 13 French. After that, I kept it on my shelf for many years, partly out of acknowledgment of my bilingual country and the necessity of at least a minimum of French, and partly out of sheer nostalgia.
I was excited to be studying French. Mom called me a “teenybopper,” for that threshold age of 12-13. I felt grown up, because that’s what it meant to start studying French, of moving into Middle School. Of course, like a typical Gr. 7 boy, I immediately began looking up all the sex words - I mean, during class, while the teacher was talking.
I am bilingual today, but not in French.