I loved kindergarten. My teacher there was Miss Honey (Hunny?) and I liked her. It was in a house across Ness Ave from where we lived in the air base PMQs in Winnipeg. I remember Mom walking me there.
I carried a towel, rolled up and stuffed under my arm. It was for nap time. We would roll out our towels and lay on them. I didn't like nap time, I was a big boy and didn't need a nap but they insisted. One day I dropped my towel in a mud puddle and I was devastated. I don't recall how Miss Honey solved my dilemma but she did. Did I mention I liked her?
There was a Viewmaster, 3-D viewer at kindergarten. I didn't have one at home but some of my friends did and I liked seeing the images in them. Since there was only one at the kindergarten, we had to take turns playing with it. I didn't mind having to wait, there were lots of other things to play with as well but,when it was my turn, I wanted that Viewmaster.
I remember the kid ahead of me not giving it up when it was my turn. I was mad and I knew how to assert myself. I had to know that since I had big brothers and if I didn't, I wouldn't ever get my way. I punched that kid right in the face.
I learned that was not an acceptable way to assert yourself in kindergarten. As punishment I lost my turn with the Viewmaster. I would rather have had a spanking.
I recall one day, after kindergarten, I went with one of the other kids there to his house. We were playing in the backyard. I think I was waiting for Mom to come get me. We were having fun when his mother told us to come inside, out of the rain.
We protested because it wasn't raining. She said it was. It turns out, she had looked out the other side of the house, and it was raining there, but in the backyard it wasn't. It seems too that my mom didn't know I was going to this kid's house. When she showed up at the kindergarten to pick me up, there I wasn't.
That'll teach her to be late.
I learned to be a brat very early.
Did I mention I liked my kindergarten teacher?
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