dinner with a kindergarten buddy

This week I had dinner with a fellow I have known since kindergarten and who grew up with me.  His name is Dan.

We chatted about whiffle ball games at the end of the street.  I never attended these games because I was not allowed to go down the street that far. 
We talked about the giraffe sliding board in my backyard and how we played house underneath.

Mrs. Cup was our first grade teacher.  Chuckie H. was the fastest and best at eraser tag.  Keith R. threw up in the cloak room one day and the janitor put this sawdust stuff on it and I can still smell both.

Every year right before school started, the Penn Franklin news would post classroom assignments.  You did not miss this issue.  In fourth grade,we both got the "new teacher" and we were bummed.

The "new teacher" was Miss Mercer.  I can still remember seeing her for the first time.  Tall, slender with brown hair that flipped like "That Girl" with a few freckles sprinkled on her nose.  She was young and lovely.  She was beautiful.  We were her first class.  We had a kickball team for one entire school year and we played kickball like it was our job. 

We loved Miss Mercer.  We loved fourth grade. 

We talked about the chance reunions we have had and how the Delmont Elementary People hung out with one another.  Delmont folks were "kin".

What a great night.

It occurred to me later that Dan and I had our dinner most likely because of Facebook.  We had fun.  It seemed like yesterday that I had seen him.

And I wondered, what will it be like for the "button?"  Will people have dinner with him and talk about our huge bonfires in the backyard, or how he was always dressed in an outfit or will they remember him for "summer camp?"

And, will they look at him differently or will they forgive his mistakes?

I made a huge mistake in my 30's.  Not the kind that lands you in "summer camp" but I am pretty sure the morality police wouldn't have approved.  I learned and paid dearly.  That mistake is so much of who I am today.  It worked out.

Will the "button" ever be  remembered for goodness and his athletic accomplishments and not his tarnished summer?

In a brief conversation with "the button" this week, he did say that he NEVER wants to come back here or face anyone. He is embarrassed.

I guess we have all been there.  I have.  And I am making it.  Time does heal.

Dinner was wonderful.  I am just glad that Dan didn't remember the day I walked in the classroom with my dress still stuck up in my underwear for all the class to see.