I loved kindergarten, which is a good thing because we moved and then I started not much later. My teacher was Mrs. Wagner and I liked her very much. I was on the “C” track (we did year-round) and that meant I sat at the green table. It was very exciting for me to ride the bus to and from school. I remember Mom and Bethani waiting for me to come home, either at the bus stop or at the back door. I used to try to be the first one home, but Annie Reimschussel lived one house down from the corner we were dropped off at while I lived two houses down and had to cross the street. I do remember that there was a bus just for the kindergarten children, so I didn’t ride with Heidi and Zach until later. The kindergarten students also had their own little bathroom, so we didn’t have to go far when the time for going came. That must have been an adventure for the teacher.
The year I started, they had built a new playground just for the kindergarten children. One of the toys was a climbing toy that had blue and yellow rubber around chains. We played a game called “alligator” on those where the alligator under the toy could chomp you if you were on the wrong-colored rung. There was also a fun teeter-totter/rocker toy. It only held two at a time, and I suppose there were occasional conflicts because we didn’t get to play with it every recess. I remember one recess that I wandered over to the big kids playground to see if I could find Heidi or Zach. I think I found Heidi and she took me back to the kindergarten playground (she wasn’t mad at me or anything, but she got me back to where I needed to be before I was missed).
We also had playtime inside. The most coveted toy was the big cardboard brick blocks; there was often a boy/girl rivalry over those because the girls wanted it to be a kitchen/house and the boys wanted it to be a fort (aren’t we conditioned young for some things?). There was also a talking phone with Sesame Street characters, but that may have been a toy I had at home.
The class next door had eggs and then baby chicks which we got to visit. That was very exciting.
I remember that once I had to go to the nurse’s office because I started coughing and couldn’t stop. Mom notes in my baby book that I had haemophilus that year and I think that cough was the first sign of it.
1985 was also the year that introduced Whitney Houston to our house because Mrs. Wagner used “Greatest Love of All” for our Kindergarten graduation. At the graduation ceremony, I received the “Care Bear” award because I was so considerate of my fellow students. I also received some sort of award for excellence in reading.
This was also the year that Mom worked on the Ramses exhibit. In her notes in my baby book, she talked about how I studied and studied the exhibition guide and looked very carefully for my favorite piece when it came time to see the exhibit. It was the “Silver and Gold Vessel with Goat Handle.” I still have the poster Mom and Dad bought me.
