The Early Years

Some of my earliest childhood memories are inside the trailer park, sitting on the dry hot pavement, playing with plastic egg containers that had been used for pantyhouse.  An item that was commonly worn by women in the workplace during those times.  I enjoyed building castles and towers, or other great masterpieces, that I used to create my own home away from home.  In my mind, they were always magical places, with some amazing adventure that I could participate in.  I would always have plenty of friends, represented by the loose pebbles I found, and plenty of magical creatures, represented by twigs. Even though I was only about three, I remember it like it was yesterday. You see, I always had plenty of time to play, since preschool was only a few hours a week.  

Finally, mama decided to enroll  me in Kindergarten after she was told that preschool had nothing else to teach me. She always loves telling that story, and laughs out-loud when she describes getting the phone call from the teacher, telling her emphatically that there was literally nothing else I could learn in preschool.  She enrolled me in Kindergarten through a local Catholic School; they made an exception even though I was so young.  This way I could start playing with boys and girls instead of pebbles and twigs.

At Kindergarten everyone seemed really nice and always made sure that I ate my snack and laid my head down for a rest.  Even though this was always the most boring part of the day, it was alright.  I learned how to play "Duck Duck Goose" and "Hide and Seek"; I made some really nice friends or maybe I should say, one really nice friend. Her name was Tiffany and she always wore three pigtails, one on top of her head and two side-by-side.  She was the only girl with three pigtails in the class and I was the youngest girl in the class; and that made us buddies, like peas and carrots.

More to come....