Chapter 27
Jeffee Goes to Kindergarten
The very first school I can ever remember attending was kindergarten. It had a unique distinction for the next 12 years. It was the only public school I would go to through high school, much to my regret when I saw the way that Catholic schools treated me.
My memory is so good I can actually remember a few events that happened in kindergarten. I think I was five years old. My kindergarten was in a big huge two-story building and the doors seem more like jail doors. They were big, heavy metal, (this is before heavy metal had something to do with music) very tall doors; though again I was very small at five so maybe the doors appeared bigger than they were but they sure seemed big to a five-year-old.
My memory is kind of fuzzy on what I did during kindergarten but I do remember they gave me a nap. I remember I had very nice teacher and I enjoyed my time in kindergarten. The one interesting thing that happened in kindergarten that I can remember was this.
One day for whatever reason I was in the hallway of my kindergarten. There was nobody else in the hallway; it was like a ghost town. I remember wandering to one or two doors and I couldn't get them open. I can't remember if I could reach the handle, probably could, but I couldn’t get the doors open. So with my little five-year-old mind, I thought school was over, everybody had gone home, and I was the only one left in the building.
I did the only logical thing I could do. I started to walk home. I calmly walked down the hall, opened the front door, and started walking home. Remember I am only five though even at five, I knew exactly the way to walk home. I guess I didn't remember at five that it was a good 3 or 4 mile walk to my home. But I got out the door of the kindergarten, and started walking on the correct street to get to my house. I turned on the right road and started walking correctly to my house.
I think I actually walked a mile or two and I was completely going in the right direction and had no idea that my disappearance from school was causing some anxiety and worry not only to the school but to my parents who would been called that their son Jeffee was missing.
So I guess, I don't really know, everybody started driving around looking for me and I still remember to this day about 2 miles from the school my uncle Dick who was a wonderful man and lived in our house found me. Uncle Dick saw me from his driver’s seat and seemed all worried and was very happy that he saw me though I did not understand what the big deal was.
I guess they brought me home and my mom was crying and everybody was upset but I didn't understand what the big deal was. I thought when school is over and nobody’s around it's time to go home so I headed for home. I remember how I normally went to school and came home. I don't think I rode a bus so maybe my mom drove me. I don't really know but that was my big adventure in kindergarten and I guess it made enough of an impression even though was about 58 years ago that I still remember it.