The Wiesbaden
post reminded me of an apology I owe to Mom and Dad. One of many, I'm sure. As
a parent I now have a different perspective of what it means to prepare a child
for their first day of school. However, as noted, I was at times somewhat
stubborn and independent. At the time I thought it was the logical thing to do.
In hindsight, I must have let Mom down. Not once but twice.
The first time in Wiesbaden.
As shown in the map of the neighborhood, my Kindergarten classroom was about
500 feet down the street. I recall Mom lovingly and excitedly helping her third
child get ready for his first day of school. When the time came, and all was
ready, Mom said "shall I walk you to school?" And I said "No! I can walk
there by myself!" She said "are you sure?" I responded
"yes, I am sure!" (Awwww)
The second time was about four months later, as I recall.
Again we were getting ready for my first day of Kindergarten in a new house,
riding a bus, to a new school, in a new
city, on another continent. This time Mom offered to drive
me to school. Again I said "No! I can take the bus!" So I crossed the
street and waited by myself, and took the bus. (Awww)
Sorry Mom for raining on your proud day. I suppose you made
it up when you sent me off to San Diego, though
Andrea helped me from Santa Barbara
by driving me down.
Everything I owned fit in the back seat, trunk, and bike on
the bumper rack, of Andrea's Ford Pinto. I was not, even then, very good at
planning ahead. When I am not interested in the details, I tend to
procrastinate. I managed to get the address of the apartment I was to share
with Wendell, Dan, and Glen. I was pretty sure. But no-one what there. They had
not arrived yet. I was not sure when they were to arrive. We had to look up the
property management company. Somewhere in El Cajon. I recall they were not
open. That was a strange message. "Hi, I may be a tenant, I think this is
the address, no-one is home, I don't have a key..."
Andrea and I, based on our experience with Steve and Gena on
the two week back-pack trip, thought we would find a local campground. Looking
at the map, we thought that Mission
Bay looked good. Yea, if
you have a reservation and $100! So we had dinner and saw a movie at the Ken in
Kensignton. We knew we would find something, and had our camping skills to fall
back on.
Good thing.
At that time Lake
Murry was closed to
decontaminate the water from a spill or something. Again, looking at map we
thought we would give it a try. It was just enough. The lake and park were
closed and fenced off. So at dusk we squeezed over the fence, and quietly laid
out our sleeping bags and slept under the stars, among the Condos around the 400acre or so park. With ants crawling. Only a few people walked by. We bothered nobody and nobody
bothered us. The next morning we got up and broke camp. After breakfast we
eventually found my room-mates at the apartment.
So I started out an independent Kindergartener, and ended up
a homeless College student, for one night.
Sorry Mom. Thanks Andrea.
