Another Story

I wrote down the number poems for Lindsay
and now my mind has traveled back in time.

I was teaching kindergarten at a
Christian school
in Lititz.
I was 23 years old and this was my fourth
year of teaching. I was teaching music part time as well.

In November of 1981,
a young man had asked me out
to see 'The King and I.'
He didn't really give me an option.
He just told me to save the date.
Turns out he had the wrong date.
The play was the following week,
but that's another story.

In January of 1982,
I was outside with the students
on recess duty.
Snowballs were flying hither and yon
and it was dangerous to be an adult
if you wanted to stay warm and dry.

Suddenly,
this same young man showed up.
He wanted to take a little walk across the yard.
I play by the rules
and was reluctant to leave my charges,
but I took a few hesitant steps away
from the flying snow.

"Will you marry me?" he asked.
"Are you serious?" I asked incredulously.
"Well, I'm not joking," said he.

I was struck dumb.
Literally.
I herded the children back inside.

A young mother came to celebrate
her child's birthday.
She brought out decorated cupcakes
and balloons
and chaos reigned
because I was speechless.

My young man was causing
quite a ruckus.
He was giving piggy back rides
to the little boys
and teasing the little girls
and it took me a month
to get order back into the classroom
but that's another story as well.

Finally, it was time for the wild things
to go home.
Unfortunately,
one little boy seemed to recognize
the intent of the young man
and he had already claimed me for his own.
His jealousy caused him to miss the bus
and we had to wait for his
ticked off father to come pick him up.

Then Phil took construction paper and
covered the door window
and talked to me a little bit.
And then I said, "Yes."
We were married 7 months later.
But that's another story.