Good Deals and Rip-Offs

Soon after Hurricane Carol I got to go to Kindergarten. Kindergarten was a treat in three ways. 1) I got away from my parents for several hours a day. 2) My 5 year-old fiancée, Kathy, was there. We took advantage and smooched behind the teacher's back frequently. 3) It was almost endless playtime. Even when they tried to teach us crap, they felt compelled to turn it into a game.

I almost felt guilty about it. When my parents wanted me to learn something they usually screamed at me until it sank in or they gave up and called me an unteachable idiot. These Kindergarten softies made games of everything.

Smooching sometimes found its way into the games. One of the games was "storekeeper". We set up a cardboard pretend-store. We had fake money and kids would buy fake groceries using the fake money. The kid playing storekeeper was supposed to count out the customer's change the old-fashioned way, from the price to the amount proffered. Somehow when Kathy was storekeeper, customer Wesley spent far too long haggling with her. "Instead of 50 cents for that, how about 30 cents and a big wet kiss?" "No." "OK, say I give you 70 cents, now how about that kiss?" "OK." Kathy was always very rational.

The Kindergarten was on base in one of the many 2 story wooden structures there [similar to the one pictured] that usually held company offices and enlisted men's barracks. In fact the partitioning of the rooms was clearly intended to serve administrative work rather than a kindergarten. There was almost no useful outdoor space. Like many of the wooden buildings of that type on base the 2nd floor could be accessed directly from outside by means of stairs up the side of the building. We had snacks on the stairs when the weather allowed it.

There were field trips. One I remember bitterly was a field trip to see Peter Pan. Peter Pan, the Disney movie, had been advertised heavily on television, and all of us kids thought that when the teacher said we were all going to a theater to see Peter Pan that meant we were going to see the Disney feature cartoon. Imagine our horror when it turned out to be a live theater stage performance in a small repertory theater. Tinkerbell was a flashlight beam! What a rip-off!

[Below: Disney's Peter would have fit right in on an army base.]