Remember Me: Kindergarten

Thanks to Lisa, I started thinking about grade school and what I remember. Fuzzy amalgamated images of kindergarten all the way through the sharp cold-water-splash of the beginning of young adulthood in 8th grade. Because Sophia says things similar to what Lisa's daughter says. Will they remember me? Will I still know them? I can't even remember the friends from preschool...

Kindergarten. I attended George Washington Elementary in Palm Desert, California. I remember:
*My best friends were Luke (last name?) and a girl named Ariel Champion (isn't that an awesome name?). But while I can figure out which boy is Luke in the class composite photo, I can't pick out Ariel. Or remember any other names.

*Our classroom was on a breezeway, not a hall. Some parts of the afternoon happened out there.

*I spent part of the day in first grade (I was an early reader). I can't recall that room, the other children, or the teacher at all.

*The kindergarten teacher was Mrs. Gretch (what a great kindergarten teacher name, I think now. Nothing sweet about that name!). I know she was old.

*Our spring show had a Hawaiian theme and all the girls wore swimsuits with grass skirts made of shredded trash bags. Leis made of kleenex flowers.

*Paste. I was never there for cut and paste time, which I deeply regretted at the time. But I'd come back from reading and the slower workers would be finishing up. I remember wishing I could put my fingers in the paste jars. That's so weird to me now.

*Scissors. I'd learned to cut with leftover surgical scissors my father brought home from the ER. Scissors in kindergarten were a bit of a shock.

I don't remember the layout of the classroom, the playground, the route to the bus, how the school looked from the outside. Were there chalkboards? I don't recall. There was a picnic table outside. I think. I remember the bus. But that's about it.

Sophia has already forgotten where kindergarten happened. She has the same teachers and classmates (her kindergarten class had only 5 students). But it was in another church common space--she tends to remember it happening in the current church basement. Same denomination, even, but not the same place. She sees the park they used as a playground when we drive by sometimes, and remembers that, but can't pick the building out. I wonder if this will be true about the current school--of course, she'll be there longer and that helps cement things.

Hmm.