Throwback Thursday: Kindergarten

I have a lot of very vivid memories of my year in kindergarten. I didn't go to pre-school; kindergarten was my first 'school' environment where 15+ five-year-olds were expected (or perhaps hoped for is the right word here) to sit in little chairs, paint, glue and play nicely with each other.

(I suppose Sunday school was an early version of this except half the kids in my Sunday school were cousins, my teacher was always either my grandma, great aunt or dad and we didn't really have to play nicely with each other.)

At any rate, kindergarten was a big room full of strangers. I don't think I said a word most of that year but I clearly watched and took it all in on some level because I have very clear memories of that place. 

Things I remember from Kindergarten

1. One class-wide lesson was to bring in some sort of 'seed' we found at our house. The teacher put our seeds in little baggies and put them on a piece of poster board on the wall.  Kids brought in all sorts of seeds I had never seen or thought of before - avocado, kiwi, tangerine - exotic finds in my mind. I brought in apple seeds. Good 'ole boring apple seeds like 5 other kids in the class. The kid that brought in banana seeds (whomever you were) had me completely and utterly impressed.

2. We had a Thanksgiving recital complete with songs and colored-paper hats. Some kids were pilgrims with the appropriate head wear. Others were Indians (when people said Indians) with colored feather bandanas around their heads. I think I was a pilgrim. We all sat in a little room (what would have been the dining room of the converted house) and sang some Thanksgiving songs (what would we have even sang?) to the parents sitting in the converted living room.

There was a drawing that day - the name drawn would get to take home a 2' x 3' cut out turkey all of the kids had worked to color during the month.  

I won. My mom still hangs it up at her house.

3. I remember learning the difference between rubber and plastic and having that moment of, 'oh, now I get it.'

4. I remember telling my mom we were asked to bring someone to kindergarten who would be attending next year so that we could introduce them and show them around. Desperate to show my best friend and cousin, Ryan, who was a year behind me at school, where I went to kindergarten, I told my mom about this and she scheduled to have Ryan join me at school the next day.  

Only one problem. Apparently it wasn't the next day that we were supposed to bring next year's recruits. I watched out the big front window as the kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Gower(sp?) explained the error to my mom through the driver's side window, with Ryan in the backseat. I was mortified and played in the back bedroom that morning with an ugly cloth doll until we were forced to come together for group activities. 

5.  I saw my first real coconut (cool) and ate some for the first time (gross).

6. I remember being the last kid to be picked-up from school one day. I ended up playing longer than normal in the garage area waiting for my mom to arrive and thinking it was odd. At some point, a car pulled up and a woman got out informing my teacher that my mom and sister had been in a car wreck and that she was there to take me home (I honestly have no idea what the verbal conversation was. And I have no memory of how I got from Kindergarten to home.) The lady that picked me up (I think she took me home) was someone my mom knew and who had driven by the wreck and worked out a plan with my mom.  

I was definitely scared by this whole thing. But what I remember most is my Annie lunch box was in the car and it got a big dent in it.

7. We had a big kindergarten graduation ceremony at Hucrest elementary school. We all marched up onto what seemed like the biggest, grandest stage imagninable to receive our diplomas. I remember thinking I was pretty grown-up in that moment.