Sandy Holthaus
Dear Heart. I like these words when used together. They sound friendly. I guess it makes sense, then, that I use them to describe a friend
first met in kindergarten. Dear Heart uses the expression
Dearie” quite a bit when talking to me, so I will make the great leap and believe that I am her Dear Heart too.
We had lunch just the other day and laughed about grade school, high school, boyfriends, girlfriends and of course each other. Even though we both live “in the Cities” (anything south of Duluth is considered the Cities) we both still follow the North Shore news through the paper and of course through facebook.com. I am a big fan of facebook’s Flip Marais; he gives you a bird’s eye view of Grand Marais.
Our conversation somehow came around to psychology and child development. Dear Heart said that some people believe we have formed our personalities by the time we get to kindergarten. Hmm…. interesting theory.
My Dear Heart and I were not always “Dearies.” Especially not at first. We met at the arts and crafts table at Birch Grove Elementary School. She and I do not agree on the details of this first meeting and all eyewitnesses to the incident have either left the North Shore or plead the fifth.
I recall Dear Heart sticking out her tongue at me in a very mean way for no reason at all and then the teacher coming up behind her and pulling her beautiful blonde ponytail, scolding her that “Young ladies DO NOT stick out their tongues.”
The hair pulling is a fact we both agree on as it is clear in our minds that we thought kindergarten teachers were supposed to be sweet and kind and play the piano while we all sang along. Like Mary Poppins, but without the flying…clearly our teacher had not seen the movie.
Agreement on that issue aside, Dear Heart remembers that I teased her about her terrible scissor cutting skills, which made her so mad she stuck out her tongue to get back at me. She then claims I laughed out loud when the teacher pulled her hair.
The teasing part I dispute but come on, who wouldn’t laugh at a good hair pulling? It’s classic.
Dear Heart and I eventually mended the fence and most likely formed an alliance against the teacher and her hair-pulling ways…but most of the year is a blur.
I do remember The Party though. My birthday party came five weeks into the school year and I, of course, invited the entire class. My parents were in the middle of constructing an addition and installing running water to the house at the time. More than twenty kids ran through the construction site, dragging sawdust and scrap lumber here and there. My poor mother lost her voice in all the commotion but I made a haul in paper dolls. (Disney and Barbie paper dolls were my favorite. I was not, and am not, a Raggedy Ann fan. I think she’s kind of scary.)
So back to the kindergarten/ personality theory…if it is true it would seem I have always been a party lover with a sadistic sense of humor. Sounds about right!
It is by chance we met.
By choice we became friends.
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