Automatic Washer

     In early childhood, I recall being so small and wishing I was one of the big kids. I would stare out the kitchen window on school mornings and see the boys and girls waiting for the bus. They were so cool! When would I be big enough to be one of them? In the winter the kids would stand there, and back then the school rules were that the girls had to wear dresses – and it would be so cold waiting for the bus, the girls would squat down to keep their legs warm! I couldn't wait to be one of those girls. (We did wear boots and occasionally leggings to school – so the legs were a little warmer at the bus stop).

     Mom used to tell the story of the time when I was about four years old. Dad had built a room onto the house that extended from the kitchen and connected with the garage that Dad also built.

back room and garage that Dad built

We called this extension the back room – the washer and dryer were there, and the stairs to the basement which were moved from their original location in the kitchen were there too.

     Next to the washer and dryer were a little desk and an easel with a chalkboard – a play area for me and my brothers. Mom said one day she went to the back room to do some laundry, and she saw me writing on the chalkboard. With my left hand I wrote the word Automatic, and then I moved the chalk to my right hand and wrote Washer. Mom was stunned with my letter writing and my seeming ambidexterity and my desire to learn and was sorry she had not taught me more herself. The philosophy at the time, according to Mom, was that parents were not supposed to get in the way of the teachers.

     The summer before my daughter Sarah went to kindergarten, I had enrolled her in a day care that not only believed in arts and crafts and playtime, but also did phonics and spelling. I would have loved the academic part of all that as a four year old! However, Sarah was so mad at me – she was already reading at home and at the day care, but she hated spelling! Why did she have to have spelling tests before she even had kindergarten! Why couldn't she just play? But when Sarah's daughter was four, just last year, Ms V wanted to spend her summer playing, but also learning things – she was hungry for it! She reminded me of someone who might want to write automatic washer on an easel in the laundry room.

     Today, I am not really particularly ambidextrous – I can only do a few things with my left hand, and from all the facebook quizzes – experts that they are, I'm very much left-brained, meaning right-handed. Thank goodness I eventually learned to write without having to change hands!

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