Tuesday, March 29, 2011

The Best Classroom

Walking into the art room was always an adventure. It was a very large room that had a path that led down the middle of the room and curved. It reminded me of the yellow brick road in the Wizard of Oz. I remember the room always being dark, the blinds to the windows in the back of the room were always open, but the front of the room was always dark. Almost, like very few lights were ever turned on. In the front of the room there were two rocket ships on each side of the yellow brick road. It was always a fight to claim your spot in one of them. Each rocket ship had old phones that we would use to pretend to talk to each other with.

The ship on the left was always my ship of choice. I would carefully climb in and sit down as the boys would blast off to outer space. Sometimes we would yell to our friends across the path back and forth. We never got yelled at for being too loud in this room. I don’t remember every being in trouble or getting yelled at in this room.

Behind the rocket ship on the left was where we kept our smocks. I had an old denim shirt that after my three years in that school had been stained with numerous colors of paint. Behind the rocket ship on the right was the largest block area you could ever imagine. It was filled with the wooden blocks in all sorts of shapes. There were always towers that previous classes had built plus piles of unused blocks everywhere. I don't remember them ever being put away or organized.

If you kept going down the yellow brick road, our art tables were scattered here and there. I don't remember much about them. There were some easels mixed in, but beyond the tables was the real gem. A huge wooden ship sat in the back of the room. In front of the ship sat our teacher's desk. To the left were the stairs to get to the top of the ship. It was covered with green carpeting and had tables and shelves filled with art supplies. One year we had a treat of sitting at those tables and coloring with recycled crayons our teacher made. The "new" crayons were melted down crayons all mixed together to make new crayons. Coloring with them was the best as you had numerous colors in one crayon.

Sometimes I wonder if this magical room was a dream, but then my brother remembers the same room that I did. I don't remember the masterpieces we made in class, but I remember the room and those rocket ships.



This piece was written for The Red Dress Club’s Remembe(RED). This week we were asked to write about our earliest memory from kindergarten. I learned that my memory is horrible from that far back. I remember bits and pieces but not enough to write about a specific event. I decided I had to write about the art room in our Primary School as there was nothing ever like it. This room is a little fuzzy here and there, but it was a room I will never fully forget.

4 comments:

  1. Ahhh...it's amazing how we can recall all those tiny details of the room where our little minds started. I love the imagery you created here. It's like I know the room too!

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  2. This art room sounds like such a wonderful, happy place to me.

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  3. This art room sounds like HEAVEN for any children...or even some of us adults. You painted a beautiful picture of it.

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  4. what a beautiful place. I bet a lot of your memory is right about it. :)

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