Wednesday, February 26, 2020
I could never understand why people hate dandelions so much. They sell gross herbicides that fanatical lawn enthusiasts spray on the reportedly offensive flowers, thereby introducing disgusting and dangerous chemicals into the soil, killing off lots of other things besides the cute dandelions.
Dandelion.
When I was in kindergarten Mrs. Harrison had throat surgery and we had a substitute teacher for a while. Things I remember about kindergarten:
- On my birthday Mommy made me cupcakes (almost certainly from a box mix) and put little plastic animals on them. Mine had a llama and because Pam wasn't there I got to eat her's too, which had a tiger on it. Wish I still had those little plastic animals. I can see them in my mind.
- Hearing Roger's arm crack when he fell down on ice and broke it. Even then I thought Roger was cute.
- Making a thread spool rack for Mommy's Christmas present. We painted a piece of wood (I think mine was light blue) and Mr. Harrison came in with another piece of wood with holes drilled in it and we put nails in each hole and hammered them down. When we removed the piece of wood, there were two lines of nails to hold the spools in place.
- Being sent out to collect snow which we melted and then saw how dirty it was. This was back in 1970 when air pollution was a problem.
- Going outside and clapping the chalkboard erasers was so much fun.
- The time a spring tornado was sighted and we had to push our desks against one wall and crawl underneath. George was rather fat and had a hard time crawling under. The wind blew the porch off the music trailer. It was very exciting.
-We got a little carton of milk and a cookie each day (Kindergarten was only half day). And Mrs. Harrison had us say a prayer every day.
- There were too many boys named John so I was asked to go by my middle name.It stuck.
Anyways, that substitute teacher. One day she was out of ideas for things to do so she asked us if we knew any songs. So I sang a song I had made up, "Dandelions are so prettily." She was not impressed and told me that prettily wasn't a real word. I felt bad afterward. Years later I learned that it actually was a real word.
