In my old home town of Perry, Fla., almost everyone fell into one of two categories. You were either an alum of Kiddie College or Happytime Kindergarten. I was a graduate of Happytime. It was, indeed a “happy time” of my life. At that time, there were no rent payments to be made. If someone asked me what a “budget” was, I would have probably told them it was some kind of bug. It seemed that the biggest care in the world was whether the peanut butter in my sandwich was going to be smooth or crunchy.
Sometimes, when I make my way back to my “old stomping grounds,” I enjoy riding along the familiar “back roads” around town. It rarely fails that it will bring back a pleasant memory or two. When I was much younger, I spent many hours on my bike, riding along those streets and roads. During the summer months, that could include a visit to the city pool with frequent side trips to a local convenience store where I could enjoy an Icee and add to my ever-increasing comic book collection. On Saturdays, my best friend and I could usually be found at the “Temple Theater” downtown for an afternoon of “spaghetti westerns” or some kind of Frankenstein movie.
During one recent excursion along “Memory Lane,” I happened to pass by Happytime Kindergarten. I am happy to say it is still in operation. My now young adult niece worked there for a brief time, which really reminds me of how long I've been hanging around this big, blue ball floating around in the heavens. Of course, my initial thought when I saw the building was, “gosh, this place was really small!” That's probably not unusual. I can look at the house we lived in when I was in kindergarten and first grade and it looks really small compared to my memories. I remembered the big tree at the corner of the lot and the dusty drive-way in front of Happytime. I remember playing on the swing-set and the eager anticipation of waiting to see my mom drive up in that old station wagon to pick me up at the end of the morning. Of course, I loved to see my mom pulling up on that driveway and the anticipation of, “Will it be crunchy? Will it be smooth? Or maybe, just maybe it will be even better. Maybe it will be a hot dog!”
I also remember nap time. I won't say nap time was my favorite time of the day at Happytime, but I do admit that right about now, nap time sounds very tempting. Funny how life twists and turns, isn't it?
I see youngsters readying themselves for their first days of school and I wonder what their memories of this time will be when they have completed as many trips around that big yellow ball of gas in the sky. I hope their memories will be of “Happytime,” regardless of where they go to kindergarten.