Yano What I Mean?: Left at School

Left at School

My kindergarten was about four blocks away from my home, and every morning my father would drop me off. Since my father and mother both worked, my grandfather who lived with us would pick me up when school was done and walk me home. This was our regular schedule. Daddy drops me off, I wait outside after school and Lolo (grandfather) picked me up to walk me home.

I was a pretty shy kid in kindergarten, intimidated to make friends because most of the kids had gone to pre-school together and knew each other already (I didn't go). A couple of the eighth graders who would help out with class became friends with me which made it a little easier. One of them was this thuggish guy, who I was scared of at first because he was so tall and seemed mean. But he eventually won me over with his personality, I only remember calling "Clownie" because he was so silly.

One day after school, my grandfather never came. I stood in front of the school with my pink and blue duffel back waiting for him, and started to cry when I didn't see him. I was scared because there was no one to walk me home. Clownie came up to me and asked me what was wrong, and I told him my Lolo never came to pick me up. "Do you know how to get home?" he asked me. "Yeah, of course I do," I said, "but I can't go home by myself!"

So Clownie offered to walk me home. Back then I didn't know much about not talking to strangers or that kids got kidnapped all the time, so I was like, "OK". So I pretty much led the way to my house and he entertained me and cheered me up along the way. As I said before, it was only several blocks away. He stayed on the sidewalk as I rang the doorbell, hoping that someone was home. It turned out that my grandfather had fallen asleep and forgot about me. He came out and thanked Clownie.

I turned around and waved goodbye and he went to wherever kind hearted thugs go after they do good deeds. I never got a chance to really thank him, or tell him that even now it's something that I look back on fondly.

Posted by Yano at March 25, 2006 10:12 AM

Comments

I feel ya. When I had my car accident in 01' I was in and out of consciousness however I remember being freed from my car by a young thuggish looking dude. He pulled me out searched my cellphone for my parents number and waited for them to arrive... I only saw him briefly. I can remember him holding my hand and clearing the blood off of my face etc. Once my parents and the ambulance showed up he vanished.. Looking back I wish we'd gotten his name and number to thank him afterwards. An angel in disguise... It's good to know that there's genuinely good people out there.

Posted by: Shannon on March 25, 2006 01:11 PM

Where we live (a very small town of 5000 people) very few children walk to and from school. I find that really sad that parents don't feel it's safe enough for them to do that. I pick Anneka (kindergarten ) up every Thursday from school just because there is no one at home even if she wanted to walk. The line of cars waiting to pick up kids is after school is pretty long.

I'm glad you have fond memories of Clownie and that he was very helpful to you when you needed help.

Posted by: Sue on March 25, 2006 01:32 PM

I love the site layout! I love that story. Who says you can't raise kids in the city?

Posted by: Irene on March 25, 2006 01:33 PM

That's a sweet story. That Clownie was a really neat guy. Probably still is.

Posted by: Trisha on March 25, 2006 05:20 PM

AWWWW Christine what a sweet story. I had something like that happen to me to when I was little. We had just moved from Pennsylvania to Florida and the school I went to was HUGE. There was an elementry section (K-5th grade) a Jr. High section (6th -8th grade) and then a High School section (9th-12th grade). Well, I was in 2nd grade and everyone said that horrible things happened to us little kids if we went to the High School section. So I was really scared of those really big kids!

One day, I was supposed to meet my Mom at the office after school instead of walking home. Well I got lost! I ended up in an area where they had LOCKERS! GASP I WAS IN THE HIGH SCHOOL SECTION! I was scared because I didn't know how to get out! I was only 7 years old.

Well I saw this HUG KID! He had on these odd clothes (Later I realized he was on th football team) He was carring a helmet and he had this stuff on his lip and I thought it was dirt at first but realized IT WAS HAIR! GASP!

He looked down at me and asked me what I was doing. I had to look up so far that it hurt my neck. :( I thought the giant was going to eat me! :( He asked me if I was lost. LOL I told him NO! LOL . He said I think you are lost where are you going, where is your mommy? Well that did it, I started to cry. IIIIIIII DOOOOON'TTTT KNOW! :*( So he took my little hand and he took me to the office, where my Mom was waiting.

The secretary said "AAWWW thank you Danny!" He said "Yeah she said she wasn't lost. I just walked her to the office so she could find her Mommy."

So thank you DANNY Wherever you are! HUGS!

Posted by: Pridey on March 25, 2006 07:08 PM

:) at least it was happy ending... yea, we always waited for our grandfather to pick us up froms chool even though it was literally one block away...

Posted by: suki on March 26, 2006 04:37 PM

My grandfather and cousin were the ones to pick me up b/c I had half day Kindergarten. They would be so mean to me though and hide from me and watch me while I looked and looked for them and when everyone was gone, I still stood there and would cry. Can you believe that? They would wait til I would cry until they would rescue me. RUDE!!! Glad to hear this was a happy ending too, our 6.5 year old isn't even allowed in the front of the house alone!!! Boy have times changed huh?

Posted by: Dina on March 26, 2006 10:23 PM

i went to a private school from K-5th, where my parents could drop me off at 6am since they had to work early or far away... so there i'd be, 5yrs old, outside the front office, watching the nightwatchman do his rounds... about twice a week, an older kid showed up almost as early and would read to me whatever comics he had and tweak the actual conversations and play out the whole story with exaggerations and stuff... i was so shy and hardly spoke. Some people are such naturals...

Posted by: Nino on March 27, 2006 12:27 PM