Kindergarten

Kindergarten is a funny word... I wonder why we have some crazy name for that grade... all the other grades sound so boring. Five year olds sure are great, aren't they? They've reached the age where they can poop and talk pretty well on their own, plus they usually haven't developed their bratty attitudes yet and still think grown-ups are cool. Anyway, onto my story...

I went to Rosamond Elementary. It was only a block or so from the house so I walked to school everyday. The school wasn't much to look at, just a squarish cement building painted a light peachy color. I used to peel the paint chips off the wall during recess if I happened to be "it" during some game where I had to count. I never ate the paint chips and never saw anybody else do it either. It never even crossed my mind. I can't understand why kids would eat paint chips... how good could they taste? It's not like paint is made out of sugar or potatoes. On second thought, maybe the other kids were eating them and that's the reason why I was at the top of my class during the elementary years.

I always thought the Kindergarten playground was great. There was this giant spider with ladder legs that was my favorite. The body was a big yellow disk that several friends could sit on while I pretended to drive the spider using the cantaloupe sized black eyeballs as the steering wheels. I imagined wreaking havoc in the city... crushing cars and climbing over houses on my enormous spider robot. I don't remember playing in the big sandbox much or on any of the other playground equipment. The spider was definitely the coolest thing out there, which is funny because I'm deathly afraid of spiders and always have been.

Ms. Slaughter was my teacher for both my Kindergarten and 2nd Grade years. Her name sounds menacing but I think I liked her OK. Both times she was my teacher we ended up having a substitute for half the year because she was out having a baby. She looked old at the time, but I guess when you're five, everyone looks old.

As far as classroom time goes I don't remember much. There was a kitchen play-set in there but I never got to play with it because all the other girls always seemed to get there first. We also had to walk on a balance beam once.

We got to use the big crayons in Kindergarten and I loved how pretty my new crayons were when I opened the box at the beginning of the year. I'm sure they didn't stay very pretty for long. I still love to open a new box of crayons... they look like perfect little rows of soldiers. The crayon making episode of Mr. Roger's Neighborhood was one of my favorites. I've always liked to open new jars of peanut butter too.

One day after we'd finished some activity my teacher told us to get into our table groups so we could go watch a movie in the other room. For some reason I hadn't heard her mention the part about watching a movie and thought it was time to go home. My group was the first one chosen to go to the other room, but instead I walked right out the front door and went home. When I got home my mom asked why I was back so early and I told her the teacher said we could go. The next day a girl in my class said I'd missed a good Mickey Mouse movie. Dang. Since then I've always wondered how no one noticed when I walked out the door and what Mickey Mouse movie it was.