Whereas adults unexpectedly bumping into each other like that - twenty miles from home - would have made a little song and dance about the surprise meeting, Phoebe and Cora just got on with playing and running about as if it was just another day at nursery school. There were no expressions of surprise.
This past week both girls have been in educational limbo. No longer in nursery school and not yet in primary school. Sadly, they will attend different primary schools from tomorrow morning and no doubt contact will gradually be lost. Inevitably, they will even forget each other as new memories and new faces crowd into their little lives. Phoebe has another great pal called Elsie who will attend a third different school. It is her fifth birthday this very day. But their closeness will also evaporate.
And so to the weird thing they call "school". Years stretching out like fenceposts as far as the eye can see. Rules and stars and standing in line and "Yes miss!"/"No miss!" and school dinners and bells and uniforms and making friends and falling out and targets and levels and sums and books to write in and storytime and it's all like a train that you cannot get off as it rattles forward to place called The Future. School!
And as Phoebe's school train now prepares to leave the station of innocence, here's a very suitable poem by Roger McGough:-
⦿
How nice that she knows how to be a friend and find a friend. May all her school days be happy!
ReplyDeleteThank you Ellen. Not all children know how to make friends and keep them.
DeleteAll too true but soon enough Phoebe will make friends that she may keep for many years.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your reassurance as a well-established grandmother.
DeletePlod, his appetite gone,
ReplyDeletepushed away the remains of his sultana pud
And went into a brown study.
Five minutes later there was a knock
on the study door.
Who was knocking I wonder?
DeleteI can still remember my first days at school aged 4 and a half.
ReplyDeleteAnd I can remember my first day at school and a very distraught girl called Linda Fisher screaming her head off and wanting to go home.
DeleteThat's too bad. Jack had a best friend who ended up going to a different school and they've lost touch. Even when they see each other, they don't play together now. It's sad.
ReplyDeleteKids certainly have a different perspective on the world compared to adults.
ReplyDeleteShades of the school-room begin to close on the growing girl...
ReplyDeleteWhen I look at class photos from the four years I spent at elementary school, I can still tell you the first and last name of each child. I don't think Phoebe will forget Cora or Elsie; as others have commented, she will of course find other friends, some will remain part of her life for a very long time, others less so. But those first childhood friends? Their memory may dim somewhat, but they won't be forgotten, I believe.
ReplyDeleteEspecially not if she has photos she can look at. For example, see here:
https://librarianwithsecrets.blogspot.com/2012/12/merry-christmas-and-first.html
I read your 2012 post with pleasure. You are right, we don't forget our first friends.
DeleteThank you, jabblog, for popping over to read my old post and letting me know about it.
DeletePS: I think you described the school train very well.
ReplyDeleteThat is such a wonderful photo. The sheer happiness on their faces makes me smile. In my walks, I frequently pass an elementary school. Many times there are classes out for recess and I enjoy hearing the sounds of the children as they happily play. My mind usually drifts back to when I taught elementary school. Most of the memories are very good ones.
ReplyDeleteThat is a glorious photograph. Such joy and innocence on their faces. I wish all the little ones starting their 'Big school' journey a pleasurable and trouble-free passage.
DeleteI love the poem!! Phoebe and her friend look so happy to be together again, it's a shame they will be in different schools. I'm hoping the twins will look forward to school days as Phoebe is, the brothers are not stellar examples, but I think their dad will be encouraging them as much as I will.
ReplyDeleteHopefully the parents of the girls will find a way to keep in touch. These lifelong friendships can be wonderful.
ReplyDeleteThis takes me back to the first day in Miss Goss's class.... I cried and she gave me a plastic Mother Goose to play with. Those little girls look so happy to be playing together. Their first days at big school may produce some tears, and if so, I hope they get a Mother Goose, or equivalent, to cheer them up.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure Phoebe will bond with girls and keep their friendships as she goes through life - there are often the special one or two who stay the course.
ReplyDelete