I took a personal day off from school today to enjoy doing some of the stuff I like to do, but seldom find the time to do it. My day started off great with a trip to Wichita with Grahame to meet Ricky and his girlfriend, Angie, for breakfast. I can't remember the last time we ate our morning meal together but today it was time.
We ate a place called "Jimmy's Diner", a great establishment with a setting of 1950's, 1960's Americana. The coolest part of it, in my books, is the miniature juke box that is in each booth. Friends, I gotta tell you, I grew up in a restaurant in Haven, KS. Way too much of my hard earned tip money was fed to the jukebox in our restaurant on a daily basis. I have no idea how much I spent, but it was more than a plenty. Good thing I really don't know--it would be depressing.
This morning at Jimmy's, I relived those days of long ago as I looked through the song list and decided which ones I might like to hear. Unfortunately, most of the songs on their jukebox list are from the 50's and 60's......and even though I turned 56 today, it still wasn't music from my generation (the 70's). But I am child #6 of 7, remember? So those songs from the 60's were at least familiar to me from listening to them over and over and over again as they were played by my older brothers and sisters at home. I decided, what the heck, I wouldn't really be wasting money...I'd be promoting the economic growth of Sedgwick County. Made perfect sense to me.
It sounded like I was at a slot machine at Vegas as those quarters slid down into the machine. One after the other, 12 quarters were fed into the machine. I used the fingers of "old lefty" to feed them into the machine so hey, that was my occupational therapy for the day. There was definitely a method to the madness.
I was lucky that the trio of "20 somethings" didn't mind listening to my choices of music-at least if they did, they didn't let on too much! Oh the choices were wonderful-those of you who are not at LEAST my age will not recognize any of the following names and really, don't fret over that. But you can always ask your parents or another responsible adult to fill you in.
Hey, for those of you who are old enough to remember, here's what I chose:
Good Vibrations/Beach Boys (hey I accidently pushed this one twice so we heard it more than once)
Green Onion/Booker T and the MGS
Indian Lake/The Cowsills
La Bamba/Ritchie Valens
Creque Alley/The Mamas and the Papas
12:30-Young Girls Are Coming To The Canyon/The Mamas and The Papas
Mama Told Me Not To Come/3 Dog Night
It was so fun to eat breakfast with the kids and laugh and carry on like a bunch of teenagers again. The hour we spent together just flew by and before we knew it, it was time to leave. When I pulled the camera out of my purse, my boys' eyes rolled and I may have heard a slight groan or two. They know that I always take pictures of us together, because, well, they are just growing up too fast. LOL! And they aren't really crazy about it. They've been known to remove the camera card or one of the batteries to try and fool their old mom into thinking that there is a problem with the camera. But I've caught on to their tricks and they knew there was no turning back this morning. So before we left Wichita, we preserved the moment in time......
Ricky and his girlfriend, Angie, and Grahame
October 26, 2011 at Wichita
I love those 2 boys and their sister with all of my heart.
On the way coming back this morning, my cell phone started ringing and when I answered it, I received one big surprise. There into the receiver I heard perhaps the sweetest rendition of the "Happy Birthday" song that I have ever witnessed. My dear friend, Carol Stockton, and her class of kindergarten children at Wiley Elementary here in Hutch serenaded me without missing a beat. I thought I might cry, but I kept it together. Many years ago, I would have my students do the same thing for my grandmother's birthday and what memories this morning's call brought back. When I got back, I stopped to visit their classroom and offer my thanks for the best birthday present a person could ever imagine getting...the gift of their "hearts". I challenge anyone to locate that on the shelf of Wal Mart. Here we are in the photo below:
Thank you Carol and children for making this old teacher's day a special one...more special than you can ever know.
From Wiley School, I headed over to my old "stomping grounds" Avenue A Elementary here in Hutch. I wanted to have the chance to visit all of the teachers and kids that had such a positive impact upon me during my 8 years there. How wonderful to see the staff, hard at work like always, trying to make a difference in the lives of the students there. Avenue A folks, you deserve a lot of praise for what you are doing for your students. I'm so proud of you all.
It was sweet to hear one of the little kids that I had when I was the ESL teacher there, come up to me and say "Maestra". That word is a word of endearment to me and when he said it, my heart felt like singing and crying at the same time. Oh, how I loved those kids. Here's the photo that was taken on what was supposed to be MY LAST DAY OF BEING A TEACHER, EVER in 2010.....little did I know!
What a great group of kids to teach! I never will forget my time there with them. What a blessing!
Thus far, it's been a great birthday. But I think the most unusual part, the most meaningful part, is going to happen very soon. I'll add another post later on this evening when I get back. Thank you for the birthday wishes all of you. I am more than blessed to have you as my friends and family.
No comments:
Post a Comment