Well, it's that time of year when school starts once again.
I always remember the back to school shopping and getting lost in the halls of Junior High, trying to find classrooms.
There was the nervousness of new classes, new faces, new teachers and such.
Breaking in those new shoes and sharpening up a brand new pencil.
That perfect first sheet of paper that you so carefully and neatly wrote your name.
But I have a much more haunting memory of my very FIRST day of school.
It all began here...
Toronto 1968.
It was POURING rain...
Well...maybe not this bad.. but for certain my vision was seeing this through the car window...
My mom and I were late.
She was driving this green Ford, with, no doubt, bad visibility...
(I was NOT smiling like I was in this picture.)
So into the school yard we drove.
All was quiet.
The yard deserted.
School had already started.
And then...as my mom was backing up to turn around...
BAM!
Straight into the basketball hoop!
Down it went like an old growth tree in a silent forest!
If a basketball hoop falls in a deserted schoolyard, does anybody hear it?
Well ,of course everyone in the school looked out the window to see my mom rushing me into the school.
When we got to the door of my classroom, my mom turned to walk away.
"Wait a minute...no one told me you were leaving me here ALONE!!"
And down the hall she went...
Deserting her baby girl in a building full of strangers.
But you see she had other business to attend to...
Yup...she had to go to the Principal's office!
After the basketball hoop incident, parents were no longer allowed with their vehicles in the schoolyard.
After they calmed me down and sat me at a stiff wooden desk, in my itchy wool tunic, the girl behind me...
BARFED on me!
No wonder I never liked school.
Hope you all have better days for the beginning of a new school year.
And mom?
I forgive you!...and I did learn to love all the good things about going back to school.
2 comments:
the photos! how well they complement your story. we almost went to the same school, judging from the shot of the hallways. school was stressful for me as well for the first years. i walked to kindergarten with my 2 older brothers but came the day i had to walk home alone. i didn't think i knew the way. i called my mom for a ride, but she said no, i just needed to walk straight until i saw our street and then turn left. but i never saw our street....and so i walked all the way through town and was on the other edge of town, wondering what happened to our street. (after that, we moved to the country and i had a bus driver who always remembered the way).
Well I don't think I can top this first day of school story. You poor thing.
I didn't like school much. It always seemed like a very stressful situation. The kids were mean and the teachers were strict. I was a day dreamer and it took me years to learn to pay attention.
I was much happier when I went to college.
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