(c) Somebody’s Always Hungry, 2011
Leave it to Beaver
(An excerpt from Julie's mom blog site posted Wednesday, April 2, 2014)
So I go to drop Lilly off at school, and they put us behind a metal fence now,
(the "cage" and I like to call it) so all the loving parents get to stand on the
other side of the prison bars, in the holding area, and wave white
handkerchiefs to their kids as they walk to their lines. No more lazily
walking your kids inside. It's really retarded, and has
ruined the family atmosphere of the school. I
thought I alone could kill socializing, with my
reclusive, social revulsion-ist skills, but here the
school has done it for me, with this warm-hearted
metal fence that we all gather behind.
Anyway, this morning, I was standing there with
Robert as the bell is ringing and Lilly is almost the
last one in before they clank the gate closed, and
then I look next to me and there, quietly, is standing
Lilly's teacher, just a nice, regular guy who works in
the garden and wears khakis alot. But Lilly's whole
class is over THERE, on the other side of the fence,
lining up. And here is Mr. B, standing next to me and
Robert, smiling. For a second I think he's gone MAD,
he's crossed over, he's no longer teaching, or teaching from afar. He's kinda
sweetly absent-minded. Has he forgotten his class? "Hey Mr. B!" I say, like
it's not weird that he's not hurrying since the bell is ringing. I am internally
worrying about his tardy note, for himself. "Welcome to the cage! What are
you doing over here?"
"I'm thinking about beavers," he says.
Yes.
Many things go through my mind. You cannot say beaver and think of the
animal. It just does not pop up first. So it's only 8 a.m., the bell is ringing,
the teacher is on the wrong side of the fence, and considering the Mr.
Rogers way he is dressed, and that I still have 4 yrs left at this school, I am
NOT allowed to make a beaver joke. Though it is desperate to come out.
"Okay!" I say. He pauses a very long time, so long that beavers are flashing
in my head, and I try erasing them and molding them into the animal
beaver. Then he goes on to say he wants to make dioramas, and they're
studying beavers, and he wants help with the art project. Of course. Those
kind of beavers. Science. We're at SCHOOL. Also, he wants to plant some
marigolds.
I'm still not sure why he's on this side of the fence. Lilly is now standing in
her line, in fact the whole class is way OVER THERE, looking around for him,
and he, the leader, is over here, just shooting the shit. They lock the gate
as we're talking, and I just feel awkward until he finally starts to go on in.
This was the parental cage. He should be on the other side. There's rules to
these kind of space invasions.
Teachers aren't allowed to say beavers and then leave it hanging like that.
The joke just wanted to throw up, in fact I still have it in there and when I
go in tomorrow to plant flowers and talk beavers, the beavers are still all in
there, all dammed up but lurking.
CLICK HERE
for much more of Julie
and the kids. Scroll
down through the first
mom blog entry which
will get you to where
you left off here. Read
to your heart's
content. Close the
window when you
finish and you will
return here.
Read more on Julie’s Mom’s Blog. To get there click
“CLICK HERE” in the column to your right. Scroll
down to where this left off. Read through past at
least February 26th to find Julie’s broken heart.