Lee, Canary Lake Elemetary and Burk

Lee is one of the friends I had in Des Moines and he was quite a character. Let me preface this with saying his home life wasn’t the best and he did like to punish you if you did something he thought was wrong I think he felt entitled since he was a year older than me. Here is one of the things he did, he was getting spanked and he told me not to watch and of course I did, so when he came back outside he wanted me to turn around and I didn’t want to do that. I knew what was coming. Anyhow, I turned around he gave me a spanking.

I have to say, now I would welcome a spanking, but let’s get  back to Lee. I don’t remember why, but my mom said Lee wasn’t allowed in the house, maybe he had done something my parents didn’t like, I don’t really remember. So he comes over and wants me to come outside and I didn’t want to or couldn’t and I had to tell him he wasn’t allowed to come in. How awful, looking back at it now to tell someone that they couldn’t come into your house, I’m sure that didn’t make him feel good.

The last memory of Lee is a day in winter when I must have came home from school with him and I was all bundled up in a snow suit, mittens, hat and scarf. I think my mother took my sister to the doctor or something and I remember I was hot in all of that and then I saw my mom pull up and I was glad to leave. Lee’s mom wasn’t a woman I wanted to be around as I remember, I think she scared me.

I went to Canary Lake Elementary School for my first semester of kindergarten and I mostly remember the room we were in. There were double doors and you walk in and along the back wall are listening stations where you could hear stories or books and to the left of that I think there was a bathroom or hallway at the end of the listening station. To the left of that was an area with a table and around the edge were cubbies where books or toys were and then there was a short partition, then on the other side of the partition was an area where I think we rested and another partition with a tall cabinet there. I think the rug on the floor was blue and had shapes or numbers on it and then I think around the rest of the room was cubby shelving, with toys and books and that area was open as I remember it.

I remember one day I was sick and I didn’t get to go to school, I was so upset and the bus driver waited for me to come out and I didn’t. I was sad! Then there was the day my mom took me to school and we were sitting at the stop light and I could see the school to the right and I remember walking in with my mom and the teacher was told I would go home on the bus. My teacher had two helpers too.

I loved riding the bus, in the morning.  As far as I could tell the route started somewhere around our house, we were at the beginning of a sub-division, we would go around this corner and pick up other kids and there were all these other houses, go figure. There was one day this girl Jill and her best friend were together and we stopped at one house and she wasn’t there and when we went to the other house they both came out and got on the bus.

The day we had our pictures taken I dressed up. I loved to dress up as a kid. I looked good and all of the other kids just wore regular school clothes. It was one of the first times on the bus I knew I didn’t look  like everyone else and that was scary, but I didn’t care, I did get a few funny looks though. I even remember having my picture taken and sitting on some little white box. I was so cute!

One afternoon it was raining and I could hear the rain coming down and it was dark in the hallway and we were standing against the wall, we all had rain coats/coats on. There  was a panel of windows in front of us and you couldn’t see through them. I think we ran out to the bus that day after we were all accounted for. The thing I loved most about school at Canary Lake was the listening station and my friends.

Burk was my best friend at the time. I was at his house before school one day and his mom gave me some orange juice and I sat at their kitchen island or counter, but I’m thinking island and then it was time to go and we got on the bus. There was one time we were at his house and I think we hid all of his toys behind the couch. There was also the time we were in the back yard and we went through the gate into his grandfather’s farm, in fact there were several times we did that and Lee was with us once or twice. I even remember picking up a picture he left on the bus and took it back to him. The crazy thing is, I think he even wrote his name on the picture all by himself.

Friends are so special! I wondered for a long time what happened to Burk and Lee.