Mrs. Patton's Kindergarten

Mrs. Patton was one of the two kindergarten teachers in our neighborhood. I attended her school from age three until I started in the first grade at age six. Her school was so much fun. It was fun because we were only two, four and six years old. I was four, James was two and Nora was six. It was a place where me, my sister, Nora; and my baby brother, James went every morning. I believe she opened her school around 6:00 a.m. because that is the time my mother or someone else took us to her church. I really don’t remember the name of her church where she taught her classes in the basement. However, because her neighborhood was called Washington Heights maybe her church was named The Washington Heights Church. That is the way people in our neighborhood named many things. Like, if a man came through the neighborhood selling peanut then we called him The Peanut Man and if he sold watermelon we called him The Watermelon Man. So, maybe Mrs. Patton named her church that way. I don’t know. Every morning when James, Nora, and myself arrived at Mrs. Patton’s church she would immediately ask us if had eaten breakfast. Sometimes my mother would cook breakfast, which I assumed was eggs because we did have chickens in the yard. Or maybe she would send us to school and let the teacher cook for us. Mrs. Patton surely did not mind feeding her students ‘cause she would give us Ziegler wieners which she sliced and fried. Also, she would give us a cold home-made biscuits with milk from one of her cows. Mrs. Patton had many cows that she kept in an open field which was called a Pasteur. I think I saw her pulling on the cows tits in an up and down motion. This obviously made the milk come out and she caught the milk in a small, silver tin bucket. Boy, the milk was cold as if it came from the icebox. The icebox was like the refrigerator except I don’t think it had electricity. The church had electric lights but we had to keep warm by a pot belly stove. The stove was round and gray, with two cast iron lids on top where it opened up for wood and coal to be placed inside. We stayed warm as Mrs. Patton played her upright brownish piano. We sang Mary Had a Little Lamb, The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round, and the Muffin Man. I don’t remember but I am pretty sure we had to take a nap. Right after we ate the wieners and biscuits and sang many songs, Mrs. Patton said, “OK, little children have to go to sleep now.” Somebody probably said OK and then we fell asleep. It was around 1:00 p.m. after we awoke to more wieners and biscuits and cow milk. This time we had ice cream sandwiches. Mrs. Patton kept us well-fed ‘cause she said, “Children wake up so you can eat.” After lunch, she said, “Take out a sheet of paper and here’s a pencil but be sure to leave my pencil before y’all go home.” All the children said, “OK, Mrs. Patton, thank you, Mrs. Patton.” One plus one equals two, that’s what Mrs. Patton told me. I wrote a one and then another one underneath. I drew a line under the one and wrote a two. That was our math class for that day. Then we put down our pencil and paper and Mrs. Patton read us a fairy tale. Maybe it was the Three Little Pigs, or Cinderella, or the Big Bad Wolf. All I know is that we learned math, reading, and drawing in the basement of her church. Sometimes we put our hands together on top of our heads, stood on our toes, and pretended we were ballerinas. I am not sure but I think my brother and sister were really quiet because I can’t remember them speaking. Its five o’clock and mommy’s here to take us home. Me, my mom, my sister, and my brother walked down the long road past Birmingham Clay Brickyard, pass the railroad tracks, across the tracks to get to our three-bedroom house. The school day is over and it’s play time. “Jean, you wanna roll down the hill?” James said. “You gonna push me first?” “Why you gotta be first?” James said. “Cause I am older than you.” “Hmph.” “Wait, wait.” Off I go down the hill by our house in a brown box with the top and bottom removed. This was the mostest fun. Playing with my brother and him hardly able to stand let alone push me. He did. James, it’s time to go in the house. Mama comes to the door, “Y’all children come in here so you can eat your supper.” Daddy always cooked fried chicken, green, cornbread for supper. Grape kool-aid always sat on the table in a punchbowl with a slice of lemon floating on top. Bedtime came at 8:00 p.m. It was time to go to bed so that me, my brother and sister could start another day at Washington Heights Kindergarten. The next day, I walked right past a big red bull which stared intently into my eyes. This bull belonged to Mrs. Patton. It stood in or near the same field as her cows. The red bull may have been eating grass when he noticed me that sunny day. The sun shone overhead. It was apparent that the bull could clearly see that I was wearing what I believed to be his favorite color - or maybe not. I stopped in front of the fence where he was standing in the green grass surrounded by trees. Our eyes made contact. I put my left thumb in my left ear and my right thumb in my right ear and fanned both hands so that he could clearly see that I was taunting him. He snorted at me. To my surprise I laughed and continued to stand outside the fence. Why was I not afraid of this animal since a bull weighs about five hundred pounds? He could have easily rammed his horns into my body. I don’t really know how strong the fence was that surrounded him. I can only guess that he couldn’t get out. From what I was told about bulls - they attack. However, this bull seemed not to be very anxious about attacking me because he stood in one spot and just gazed at me. It was like we were having a very intimate and silent conversation. Maybe in his own way he was saying, “Little girl, I don’t want to hurt you.” Or, maybe he could see that I was a little child and wanted to play. It never dawned on me that this was a very large animal who could easily have poked me with his two horns which protruded from him head. He could have knocked down the fence that contained his large red body. But he only snorted and kept staring. I don’t know if I wanted him to chase after me so that I could run away. I don’t really know why I stood outside the fence taunting this animal. Only four and beginning five years old I did not know the extent of the danger I created for myself. I just wanted to see if it was true about what I had been told. I have been told that bulls will always chase you when you wear red. Well, I don’t think I ever found out because I didn’t stick around long after he snorted at me. I turned my face forward, put one foot in front of the other, picked up speed and ran fast as I could. It is the 1960’s and almost everyone in our neighborhood has some kind of animal. My mama and daddy raised chickens, but some people had goats and pigs, so Mrs. Patton was not the only one who had animals. I guess I loved animals because I always dranked all my milk and poked fun at Mrs. Patton’s bull. It is September, 1960 and my Aunt Rosa took me to big school. Well, this was my first year at school so I would be going to the first grade. I called it the big school because I was so little and that's where all the big kids go. That was Hooper City High School located in Hooper City, Alabama. I held her hand as we walked that long road from her house to the school. I guess it may have been two miles. We didn’t care back then because we walked everywhere. When she got me to my first grade teacher, Mrs. Somebody, I acted like a big girl and marched right over to my desk. When my aunt started to leave, I cried. “Take me with you.” “She’ll be alright,” my aunt said. I guess I settled down, I don’t remember anything else. I don’t remember if I rode the bus home or if I walked. Our family walked a lot because we didn’t have a car. But that’s OK because we didn’t care. We loved to walk.