30 Years in 30 Weeks - edition 6

1983 brought a lot of changes in my life. I turned 5, Mom got remarried and I started Kindergarten.


So, do you recognize that man in this picture? It's Ben!!! With brown hair!!! This was the summer right after Mom and Ben got married. I must admit, at the time I probably wasn't too happy about it. I mean - I was 5. I remember being VERY jealous...leaning up in between the front seats of that old blue Toyota Corolla, crying on my Grandma's lap during their wedding...you name it. Anyway, I'm pretty sure this is Palo Duro Canyon. If not, it's definitely somewhere in West Texas or New Mexico. Our family vacations almost always ended up going that direction. Loooonnnngggg rides in the car.


That fall, I started Kindergarten at Humble Elementary. I only went for half a day - in the afternoons. I was upset that my friend, Stacey, was in the morning class. The remainder of my day was spent at Children's Choice. The smell of A&D diaper ointment and Lysol always brings back memories of that place. Mrs. Williamson and Ms. Debo were my teachers at Humble Elementary. Both were very nice. Mrs. Williamson had long "Farrah Fawcett" blond hair and wore a lot of make-up. Ms. Debo was tall and skinny with kinky-curly hair. Ever read that book, "Miss Nelson is Missing!"? The characters always make me think of Mrs. Williamson and Ms. Debo. But, unlike that mean old substitute teacher, Ms. Debo was VERY nice...and didn't look witch-like at all.


My kindergarten classroom was VERY big (or it seemed so at the time). I remember a large wall of windows at the back of the room with big hands attached to it - a "lemon yellow" hand for left and red one for right. Lots of play centers. My favorite shirt to wear was a Smurf t-shirt. It had a Smurf and a rainbow screen-printed on the front and turquoise-blue trim around the neck and sleeves. When the class all sat down together, the same two boys always sat on either side of me - brown-haired David and blond-haired David. I guess they were my Kindergarten boyfriends. I actually ended up going to the same college as brown-haired David. After school, I went back to Children's Choice and, usually, Ben picked me up. At least once a week we either went to get ice cream or bought Mom some flowers. I was pretty bored in Kindergarten. If you ask my mom, she'll inevitably tell you the story about my "end of year test" where I was asked to count to 20. I counted to 100 before Ms. Debo said, "Okay, Kristi, you can stop."