Chapter 3

It was only a brief moment after Tommy’s question and my own slight bewilderment about the thoroughly cleaned set of blackboards that Miss Constance announced we all should get our coats on and line up for the day’s end bell.

“Those of you taking the bus home, line up along the side wall here,” she was saying. Adding, “If your moms or dads will be here to pick you up, line up at the front of the classroom.”

The cacophony of better than two dozen excited shrill voices filled our classroom to overflowing. I could see Miss Wanger and Miss Constance shake their heads at each other as the noise reached a creschendo. I figured it wouldn’t be long before they would have had enough of our excited disorder and they’d be adding their screams and yells to the chatter admonishing us to quiet down.

But much to my betterment, because I was sure that there would be extreme consequences for the myriad of high pitched screems we all were emitting, while we were waiting anxiously for the end-of-day bell, something surprised us all. The bell sounded and the room grew silent. Not that the bell ended the mayhem, but it was the opening of the door by Mrs. Hillbest, the school’s principal, that shuttered the room in instant silence.

With a smile on her face, she said, “See you tomorrow, boys and girls, Have a nice evening.” Continuing, she added, “Remember, you need to be quiet in the hallway.” Still smiling, she finished up her adminition with, “Have fun this afternoon --- see you all tomorrow.”

Well, we were just kids and the excitement of the early out was hard to contain. I guess we made a little more noise than we should have made but I remember being a little sad that I’d not be traveling with Tommy in the bus he took to and from school. Being in kindergarten, everyone who took a bus, needed to be dropped off right in front of their house and a parent or guardian needed to be present and visible to the bus driver.

No one was allowed to arrive or leave school unescorted if they didn’t qualify for the school bus. Even though Tommy and I played together all the time and lived little more than half a block from each other, the bus boundry was just beyond my house and before Tommy’s. There was no way we couldn take a bus or walk together. I’d need to be escorted for my walk home. For us both, it was disappointing we couldn’t travel together.

I was a little confused about what had happened when we cleaned the blackboards. I really didn’t have a clue how mine had gotten totally cleaned right up to the top. I was sure that there had been some of Miss Constance’s writing up there but I couldn’t be exactly positive just what it had been.

My attention was drawn away from those thoughts as we all got to the side door where kindergarteners entered and left school. I could see my mom on the sidewalk and I ran up to her. She gave me a hug and a kiss to my topknot. Taking my hand, she asked how the day had been.

“It was fun Mommie,” I answered. “We got to play with the big blocks and built a castle and we practiced writing the alphabet and our names,” as I rambled on about the many things we had done in class, during our ten to fifteen minute walk home.

Walking with my mom was good for me and as we walked I felt the excitement of the day ebb away and after a while I calmed down and we walked in silence for a bit. When we got to Elm Avenue, one of the busiest streets in our neighborhood, about a block from our house, mom asked if Tommy Stone was in my class.

“Yeah,” I told her, “He even sits a couple of desks in front of me.”

“That’s nice,” she said. “I was hoping a friend would be in your class. That way you’d have someone you know there.”

“Yeah, it’s cool,” I answered. “We played together a lot and during recess, we played catch for a bit.”

“That’s nice,” she said, adding, “We’re home,” as we we turned from the sidewalk and headed up our driveway toward our front door.

“Why don’t you get changed,” she told me. “Then you can go out and play for a while. We need to go to the store for groceries later. I’ll call you when I’m ready to leave.”

Most homes in our neighborhood have nice big yards and one of my favorite occupations was to do some serious tree climbing, so I was back outside in a dash. I’m not sure just how big our yard was but I remember my dad mentioning we had an acre of property. I really wasn’t sure what that all meant except that we had a nice big yard for me to play in and plenty of trees to climb.