PLAYDATE
By
Gerry Niskern
I had a play date last week.
The kindergartener arrived with her dad. The old toy box came out and she got busy cooking on the little stove. She served us up a tasty breakfast of bacon, eggs and even decaf coffee for me! Then, even though it’s been over a year, she suddenly remembered that I had the dining room chairs you can spin round and round in.
Then it was outside for some Frisbee tossing but in the excitement of the moment she ran head on and took out the screen door. After a few tears she was fine but getting over the shock that you really can’t run thru screen doors! After Frisbee she swept the leaves off my patio, watered my plants and then we had a really fast game of “Go Fish”. She won the game, all while chair spinning.
My visitor filled my Easter candy dish with Jelly beans and promised to wait to eat some only after lunch.
During lunch, in between spins, we engaged in some school gossip. I learned who the smartest kid in her class was; turns out she is also the class bully! My playdate was real interested in hearing about the boy bullies on my school bus when I was a kid.
She confided who her “crush” was and I said that was nice that she had a boyfriend. But she replied, a little sadly, “But I’m not his “crush.”
Her Dad decided to go take a nap so we thought it would be a good time to analyze the jelly beans. She brought me the colors one by one. After much testing, it was a tough call but we decided that the white ones tasted like coconut and were the best.
She wanted to know how I painted the images hanging on my walls; “exactly how!” So we had a little discussion on the difference between acrylics and watercolors. I realized that she knows “where the funny is” when I told her about one time when a man bought one of my large paintings and put it on his car and drove away. She thought that was hilarious.
I had been waiting for some new art work from her for a long time and she did two great images for me. Even gave me long eye lashes in one! She wanted to know my full name and then sounded it out herself and wrote it exactly right! Afterwards she found the Scotch tape and put them up on the fridge for me.
On her suggestion that we “go outside and get some fresh air” I asked her to clean out my large geraniums and get rid of everything that was dead. She was working hard and doing a thorough job when her Dad came out and said it was time to go. My great-great- granddaughter, Iris Mary, had to leave way, way too soon!