The Fourth of July was always so much fun. Every year, the town held a big picnic out by the lake. I remember being able to drink a pop out of a can…usually orange pop. We never got to drink pop at home! We played games — our favorite was a fishing game. You threw your fishing line over the top of a big, stretched out hanging sheet. Somehow a toy was attached to your fishing line and thrown back to you! We played at the playground with all our friends, and eagerly waited for it to get dark. While we were waiting, we would watch an old cartoon on a big screen. The cartoon was always faint and could barely be seen as we waiting for the sunlight to fade. When it was finally dark, we would sit back on blankets and watch the fireworks being shot off by the volunteer fire department on the other side of the lake.

August finally came, and with it the beginning of school. I always loved starting school in the fall. My second grade teacher was expecting her first baby in January. My mom, already the mother of three, was friends with her and held a baby shower for my teacher at our house. We watched as she made a gag gift for the expectant mother…a cloth diaper with a present of peanut butter and mustard inside!

For the second half of that year, a young teacher took over our class. I have absolutely no memory of her! Sometime during my years of teaching second grade, my mom confided in me — she was upset that I was to have two different teachers that year. Clearly, I didn’t suffer, but perhaps Mom’s feelings pushed me toward the decision to take a year’s leave of absence when I became pregnant. I didn’t feel it would be fair to my students or a maternity leave teacher to have a baby right at parent/teacher conference time in November. And so I had a leisurely pregnancy with my first daughter. Little did I know how much work motherhood would turn out to be!

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