1st day of school

All across the city of Baltimore and the state of Maryland, all kinds of schools are having their first day.

I remember how much I use to hate when the kids came back to school when i would commute to work when I was at Morgan.  Gone were those moments of solitude on the bus in the morning, replaced with loud talking about basically nothing or a string of obscene words.

Basically the 1st day of school signifies one thing….the end of the summer.  I was just telling a friend how I just sneezed and it was my bday, I turn my head and it is now August 25.  Geez, it seems like the summer gets shorter and shorter.  I remember summer being this huge vacation filled with infinite possibilities..no matter how much my mom/cousin or whoever i was staying with moaned about how they wish we had summer camp.

I remember one particular time living with my mom on Madison Ave.  I was so nervous, again I was enrolled into a new school.  I knew I had to make friends all over again..meet new teachers..learn the new safe route home.  But i did like one thing about my first days…when my mom wasnt working she’d walk me to and from school.  This particular morning I’d gotten up at the crack of dawn..maybe about 6 (cause u know 6 is hella early for a kid)  My clothes were laid out for me, complete with a stuffed back pack.  In addition my mother did my hair the night before so that my ponytails had a moment to loosen up from the tight madness she usually did.  We had this cat, Big head and I’d fed him a whole can of tuna fish…lol I laid on the floor with him as he ate…i even fed the mouse that was on the sticky pad..haha.  My mom arose screaming as she normally did when I was doing something outta pocket but she’d laugh because she knew all her little girl wanted to do was make sure everyone/everything was alright.  She also knew I was a big lovebug, except when it came to my lil brother..ugh!

Mom was finally dressed, and we were ready to go.  We walked down the steps of the apartment building and we saw Dead man Richard ( he was the strange man that lived in the basement apartment) he gave me this sweaty crumpled up dollar.  My mom said thanks for me and said something of another about not giving me anything when she wasn’t around..Down the front steps and onto the sidewalk we went.

I remember the day because it was one of the few times I spent time alone with my mom.  Having 2 kids, 2 years apart with 2 different families wore on my mom I think.  Every child thinks their mom is beautiful but i thought my momma was a model..she was about 6ft1/2, her skin was just like mine, her nose just like mine and her chin..just like mine..she strode in the sunlight and the beams caught her auburn her…it looked like fire but I just giggled cause this was my mom.  She wore some pants she’d cut into shorts..but the shorts were more like a skirt..she’d cut the pants in all these thin strips so that they’d hang..giving the illusion of a denim grass skirt..i remember it because i remember holding onto one of the denim strips as we walked.  We laughed and giggled all the way to the school yard.

I was never a nervous child when it came to being social because it was something I had to be, as much as I moved around.  The school John Edgar Howard Elementary stood on the corner of Linden Avenue which was not so far from North Avenue.  The school yard was huge and intertwined in the fence was bright beautiful honeysuckle.  I’d take several and put them in my mom’s flaming puff of a hairdo.  Mom and I went inside and prepped my paper work for my first day.  She walked me to my class and sat down with me and the teacher before the whole class convened.  I can’t remember my teachers name but i do remember later winning a dramatic reading award for Langston Hughes’ Mother to Son poem.

There weren’t too many more times when my mom walked me to school..maybe that’s why i remember this time so vividly…But when people mention first days of school this is the memory i have.

~ by bewradley on August 25, 2008.