Mommy's Piggy Tales: Week 2: A Child's Garden (part 2 of 2)

We moved to Brunswick, Georgia, two weeks before I turned 4. Oh, boy! Oh, boy! Sort of. Mom says I didn't quickly cotton to our previous move to Valdosta, and I vaguely recall being defiant during the latest packing up (with at least one spanking...)

Age 4, and finally some hair

But now we were here and I got MY OWN ROOM! And then my mommy & daddy got some new bedroom furniture, so I got their full size bed, their dresser & the vanity. These had been my mommy's things as a teenager, and now they were mine. Sure, I had to let my brother have the wonderful toy box Daddy built, but I was a big girl now. With a big bed! Not a bad birthday present at all. I could still visit the toy box; it was great to hide in one of the two bins, or to sit way up on the top shelf.

Another great thing about Brunswick was I had friends. Three girls my age lived across the street from me: Kim & Kelli P., and Michelle B. We were all enrolled in St. David's Kindergarten for the fall. Kim was a year older than her sister Kelli, but Kelli, Michelle & I were all in the same class as four-year-olds, then as five-year-olds.

4yo Class, me center in green & white, Michelle behind me, Kelli second from left

I think I liked school very quickly. I got to color and paint and learn how to use scissors. I made a beautiful picture for my mommy called "The Land of Love." The two happy people were shaped like hearts and they were walking on a grass of hearts under a sky of hearts. My mommy framed it; it hung up for years in our kitchen.

School was playground with swings & eating those little yellow flowers that tasted sour like dill pickles (and getting hit in the head with a swing while picking a flower to nibble. Didn't do that again.)

5 and bright-eyed

School was writing. School was reading and books. The book-mobile would come by and I'd eagerly check out new books. My parents had to join a book-of-the-month club to keep up with me. I loved to read. I was self-taught. I don't remember learning how to read-- it'd just always been there.

School was trying new things and deciding I didn't like them, like climbing to the top of the monkey bars & getting stuck. Or try, try again learning to tie my shoes using shoes, lacing exercises and my Dressy Bessie doll. (That was a red-letter day; I bugged Mommy while she was folding laundry just so I could show her.)

Even at the beach, you have to wear a hat & coat in winter

School was music on Mondays, show & tell on Tuesdays, a bible story in the chapel on Wednesdays, art on Thursday and special things like films or the book-mobile on Fridays.

School was birthday parties & cupcakes during snack time, but only after Fr. Lantz tried three times with his magic flower to find out who was having a birthday. Of course, it was never me. Having a summer birthday became a big disappointment to me that way.

5yo class graduation, I'm second from left

But time away from school was wonderful, too. Times were simpler; a five-year-old could cross the street by herself to visit a friend. We all played together a lot. If it rained, the storm drains would back-up and our gutters became wading pools. Living is Brunswick was life in a coastal town. I saw the beach for the first time and was awed by it: all that water to play in, shells and driftwood to collect, big live oaks with branches so big and so low to be benches by the dunes, salt marshes filled with wildlife. In my own back yard, I would catch basking green anoles just to watch them change color; I'd giggle if their tiny mouths clamped on my fingers, and feel very badly if their tails broke off when escaping.

One weekend, my daddy found a turtle in the storm ditch behind our house; this was exciting and I was allowed to bring it to kindergarten for show & tell. I did just as I was told: only pick it up in the middle of the back. So.... we didn't know it was a snapping turtle that could reach all the way back there. Baby snapping turtle. No stitches on my finger, but the doctor gave me my DTP booster earlier than scheduled. (No! Not ANOTHER shot!) And yet after all that, I was sad that they had to let my turtle go.

Brunswick was where I fell in love with "nature." It's good to be young and in love.