I didn’t go to kindergarten.

 

               I didn’t go to kindergarten.

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Since we didn’t have kindergarten in the rural school in which I began my education, I missed the chance to learn everything I needed to know in one fell swoop of a year.

I have had to learn everything I needed to know the hard way, life’s lessons over time. I’m still enrolled in that particular school.

Smashed flat beneath a bundle of notebooks I no longer need but hang onto for looking back at names and memories, is a small bundle of flyers for plays at the theater I helped build from nothing but scratch and desire. I’m quite proud of that chapter in my life.

What I want to do, without the expense and fuss of frames, is to paste these flyers to a piece of card stock or something similar and preserve the fronts, crumples and dings and all, and hang my theatre memories in my bodega sewing room where I actually have usable wall space.

When I was in first and second grades, art consisted pretty much of paper and coloring crayons. Pitiful, but, hey, it’s a start. I’m not sure about the best materials to use for my “art” project, but I know who has the answers.

My friend Crinita, who will be here in three weeks for a short stay, is a teacher, a primary teacher. Retired, but at her core being, a teacher through and through.

I could figure out how to put together my project, but when one has an expert next door, why not use her skills and knowledge.  Crin is also a lot of fun.

I’m not without artistic skills. When I was 8, 9 and 10, I used to make my own paper dolls and design their clothing.

No scrap of paper hit the burn bin without my scrutiny. I remember removing the turquoise and silver paper covering from the Ajax Cleanser. Do you realize the possibilities of beauty with a scrap of turquoise and silver?

Armed with nothing more than a ruler, scissors and crayons and white paste, from piles of these papers I created entire shoe box rooms with furnishings. Lamps from scraps and a sucker stick. Windows with a view from scraps of cardboard and my Dad’s match book covers of birds and flowers.

Kindergarten is important. I wish I could have gone. Instead, I had unstructured time and imagination. Also important.

Next month I’ll let you know the outcome of my kindergarten “art” project. I wonder if they still make pots of white paste?

Sondra Ashton

HWC: Looking out my back door

July 31, 2025

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