Kindergarten Registration

     One day when I was four years old, my mother and I went down Back Creek Road to a building which had once been a one room school house. It was no longer a one room school house, but it was being used by the school district for other things.

     On that day, the building was being used for kindergarten registration!

     I was so excited! There were lots of people when we walked in the front door, and because I was so little, all I could see were legs in front of me. And I held on tight to Mom's hand which was high – but I did not let go – and she was holding on tightly too.

     There were tables all along the walls of the room – and people were going up to the tables and filling out paperwork for the folks sitting in chairs behind the tables. It was noisy – I did not know how people knew what to do. I decided that when you are an adult, you know everything – and I was looking forward to knowing more as I got older.

     The front of the room had a step up and a whole stage-like area. I imagined that that was the area where the teacher once stood in front of her students, and perhaps she even had a desk on that raised area of the floor. There was a line forming in the middle of the room in front of that step. The line was getting longer and was almost out the door where we had come in. I did not like the looks of that line. After a while Mom and I were standing in that line too.

     As the line moved slowly forward, I was finally able to see what was on the raised area of the room. A very old, decrepit looking man was sitting hunched over on a chair; he was thin and the suit he was wearing just hung off of him. I was getting more uncomfortable by the moment. But I was holding Mom's hand – and everything would be okay. The old man talked to a mother and child for a while. Then the mother and child would walk away and the next mother and child in line would walk up to the old man for their turn. I did not understand what was going on. I did understand that I did not like it.

     After a while we were in the front of the line, and then it was our turn. The old man smiled at me, beckoning me forward. Why was he smiling at me? This was not good. Mom tugged at me until we were both standing in front of him.

     He was smiling and talking to me as if he knew me, as if he liked me – but he did not know me and he could not like me. And after a moment, he felt he had made enough small talk, and he tried to take off my coat!

    I kicked him in the shins.

    The next thing I knew, I was in the parking lot - still holding my mother's hand, and she was moving so fast, it felt like we were flying! When we got out of earshot of everyone inside and outside the building, Mom hissed at me,

    “That was Dr. C*** you just kicked! He was just trying to give you a physical! You needed that physical to go to kindergarten – And since you did not get the physical, you can't go to school!”

    Well, how do you like that? I had not even begun my first day of school, and I was kicked out forever!

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