Tonight my daughter and I stopped at Trader Joe's after a very long wait at the pediatrician's office for an emergency triage appointment. She wasn't feeling very well and wasn't in the mood to shop. We tend to hit TJ's when we want to get in and out fast, because it's small, there's nothing moved around, we know what we like, and we don't need to think much about what to get. So we're tossing things left and right into the cart and we round a corner and I hear a voice say "I know you!" I looked up and sure enough, it was Miriam, mom of Lewis, a kid my children went to Gan with. Gan is Jewish preschool. I don't think I've seen her since preschool, which would be oh... 12 years ago. We spoke for a few seconds, and then she went her way and we went out way.
Except the second we got around the corner, my daughter said to me, "Isn't Lewis the kid that came to school every day in his underwear?" And yes, he was. Lewis was quite the nutcase at 3-4, when we knew him. He was THAT kid. The one that threw a trantrum every single morning about getting dressed, so no matter what the weather Miriam would toss him into his car seat in his underpants and drive over to the school, and then haul him kicking and screaming into school and dress him in the lobby. Every freaking morning.
Now, I haven't thought of that kid or his mom in years, but I swear, the sight of him pitching a royal fit will be with us all the rest of our lives.
Which made me think about my own kids, and what they would be remembered by when they were preschoolers. My son, that's easy. He was the kid who knocked out a teacher and sent her to the hospital. She never came back. He hit her with a big long wooden block right on her forehead. I was SO proud.
My daughter? Well it could be the glasses she wore, or the palatte expander she had at 3. Or it could be her very vivid imagination that hasn't changed much in the past 12 years. It might be what a good friend she was and how much all the kids liked her. She was so popular. Maybe it was that she read Hebrew before she read English. Or that she was so small and petite compared to her twin brother. I don't know. It could be any of those things or something totally different.
All I know is, they were dressed in clothing when they arrived, and for that I am thankful, because who wants to be 16 years old and still thought of as the kid that came to school in underpants every day?
So funny! I don't remember preschool, except for the carpool friends. I met up with a preschool "pal" in middle school and I was amazed at how well she remembered our young classmates.
My own kiddo? His Early Intervention teachers still remember him, and he's 17 now. Was it because I had worked with them as an aide before he was born, or was it because he was just that memorable? I'm not sure i want to know the whole story. At least he was clothed the whole time!
Posted by: Daisy | January 31, 2009 at 01:55 PM
And neither of you asked whether Lewis still goes to school in his underpants? Such self-control!
Posted by: Ilona | January 31, 2009 at 04:38 PM
Amazing, isn't it? I didn't send my girls to the synagogue's nursery school, I sent them to a preschool program at a local day camp. Many of those kids didn't go to elementary school with my girls, but when the girls reached middle school and high school they started to meet up with kids they'd known in preschool. It's remarkable what they remember about their preschool friends.
Posted by: songbird | February 01, 2009 at 01:06 AM
This reminds me of the day I told my girlfriends about my daughter's new friend in her new High School. I mentioned her name (Dina M..) and there was a stunned silence around the table, then one of them said "Dina M?" and another said "Oh my god, no way!" and then the third one said "THE BITER???!!!"
I must admit I think of it still when I see her (she's a lovely 17 year old now and still my daughter's friend) and it still makes me giggle.
Posted by: Eleanor | February 09, 2009 at 02:58 AM