Charlotte, NC

Today, kindergarten enrollment begins, huh?? Geez … how well I remember:

No, we didn’t have the luxury of kindergarten back when I was a young’un … but the teachers I had growin’ up in Pineville Elementary (remember Miss Beaver, Mrs. Brassfield, Miss Garrison and the “infamous” [meaning "tough but fair"] Miss Grier??) more than made up for it.

One of the fondest memories, though, came from my son, Mike, and his K teacher at Pineville, Betsy Blankenship (one of the most wonderful teachers ever to grace a classroom, IMHO).
He and his K-class were invited to the wedding of Mrs. B’s assistant, Theo Tolbert, and, of course, I was proud to see him so excited about it — Ms. T. was a fave of all the kids!

We arrived at the church and met some of his other classmates, then got to meet the “lucky guy”. He seemed all right — remember, he had to pass inspection by about 24 young people who were very cautious about letting their teacher’s aide go … it had to be to just the right one!
After the ceremony, the bride and groom headed out the vestibule door to a shower of birdseed balls (seed-filled mesh balls. It’s better to throw that than rice, since the latter can actually kill birds if eaten. Of course, at mine, they forgot the birdseed … picked up rocks instead …).

Now, in order for us to get ready for the wedding, I hadta come in from workin’ on our garden and take a shower. That meant the shovel, seed, and stuff were still out there.
Since it was too late to do any more work when we returned, I just “left it lay” until the next A. M.

The next morning, I was awakened by a “shishing” sound — sorta like … someone was digging in the garden! So I rushed to the window, looked outside — to see little Mike, digging a little hole. Beside him were the “birdseed balls”.
I ran out there and asked what he was doin’ out there … especially so early in the morning.
He shrugged his shoulders and said,
“Well, you plant bean seeds and ‘mater seeds, an’ they grow. So I’m gonna plant these bird seeds and grow some birds!”

Well, I chuckled — actually, I thought it was a tweet gesture! After explaining that birds don’t grow from seeds, I took him inside to wash his hands.
When we returned, there were birds all over the place, wanting the seed he left out there!
Excitedly, he grabbed my arm. “See, daddy? I KNEW I could grow those birds!!”

Y’know, if we just open our eyes to the innocence, the love …. and the ingenuity … of our kids, we’d be a lot happier people!

God bless ‘em as they start the new school year!