Last evening, John-of-the-mismatched-shoes joined our Friday night irregulars. He hadn’t been here for several years – certainly not since the demise of the Espy Foundation – although he does continue to ‘retreat’ to the Peninsula each summer to work on a book–in-progress.
His day job (actually his most-of-the-year job) is in Seattle where he is the librarian for a K-8 school. Before that, though, he was a first grade teacher and that’s when he got creative with his shoes. To help kids improve their observation skills, he began wearing mismatched footwear and it has become his trademark. When he was an Espy resident several years ago, he came to two or three Friday Nights before anyone noticed. When we asked, John admitted with a wry smile, that first graders were considerably more observant than us old ducks.
Well, in our defense, John is six two or three and the tendency is to look up when you are with him, not down. (And, after all, six-year-olds are a lot closer to ground level than the rest of us.) It was our friend Gordon who first noticed and asked, but then, as someone pointed out, Gordon has never completely grown up anyway…
Even though John always has both socks on and usually both shoes, I can’t help thinking of the old nursery rhyme whenever I see him:
Diddle, diddle dumpling, my son John,
Went to bed with his trousers on;
One shoe off, and one shoe on,
Diddle, diddle dumpling, my son John.
And, speaking of nursery rhymes – earlier this week we had dinner with our friends Jill and Joe. After the most fabulous homemade tamales in the world, the multi-talented Jill gave us a tour of her studio and talked to us about her work with kids in which she gives lessons in kindness. She takes along some props and supplies in “Jill’s Pail.” I didn’t ask her if she has to explain the reference these days. I truly hope not, but I wouldn’t be surprised.
I’m sure that my Mother Goose associations reveal something basic and perhaps a bit childlike about me, too. I hope so! I love those old rhymes. They were my first association with literature; I often taught a Mother Goose unit to my primary students; I have a small collection of nursery rhyme books. And now I find that my friends seem to be hopping right off the pages and into reality. Very cool.
I loved Mother Goose Week at Ocean Park Elementary when I worked there! Remind me to lend you a Beatrix Potter DVD that I think you would enjoy. Jo and I love it!