Story

THE PIG JIG

Nancy's Notes 🖊️🎶

Denise at GirlieOnTheEdge is challenging us to create
a Six Sentence Story using the word “detail”.
This is my response to that challenge.
(Revamped, rewritten and reposted from a 2022 story)

Recently, while talking with a friend, I asked her “What is your earliest childhood memory?” to which she replied her days in kindergarten and there may have been some mention of earwax and/or sticking bubble gum in her ears but that’s her story to tell; as it turns out, some of my early childhood memories also revolve around my kindergarten days and what a joy it was to be five years old when all that really concerned me was eating and playing.

My kindergarten teacher’s name was Mrs. Merchant and she could have been anywhere from 34 to 64 years old with her short, curly salt-and-pepper hair, rimless glasses, shirtwaist dresses, sensible shoes and sweaters (which she wore every day regardless of the temperature), but the single-most thing that stands out in my mind about Mrs. Merchant was the fact that she would discreetly vomit daily into a silver bowl which she kept behind the piano, and then cover the bowl with a towel and carry it off to the bathroom for a good washing; our mothers told us not to stare because it was rude but it was pretty damn hard to ignore your teacher puking behind the piano every day.

We did all sorts of fabulous things in kindergarten like arts and crafts, story time, marching band parades and show-and-tell but my favorite thing of all was the talent shows where we could sing, dance, tell a joke …. basically whatever 5-year-old kids did that qualified as talent; I always sang a song and I remember every detail about one of my performances – my song, my little dance and most of all my costume, my little pig costume.

My mother, ever the creative seamstress, bought a child’s pair of pink one-piece Dr. Denton footed pajamas with a rear flap for “easy potty time” (if you don’t remember Dr. Denton pjs, you’re really missing out on something!) and she brought home some pink felt from the shop where she worked to make little pig ears and a curlicue tail which she fashioned out of a short length of a wire clothes hanger covered in pink felt and stitched to the little rear end flap of my pjs; my mother covered one of my plastic headbands with felt and attached the ears to it while my piggy nose was made from stiffly starched fabric covered with felt with two holes cut out on each side for the string which tied around the back of my head to keep my piggy nose in place like a mask.

I did a little Pig Jig which I can only describe as a cross between clogging and the tarantella and I was told I looked absolutely adorable but sadly …. or luckily, depending on how you look at it …. no photos remain of that momentous occasion – at least none that I’m aware of; I’m sure if there were any photos out there, someone would have used them to blackmail me by now, don’t you think?

Yes, those days in kindergarten were great and I believe Mrs. Merchant (who probably suffered from bulimia, poor thing) didn’t have a first name because I’d never heard it; I also wasn’t crazy about nap time because no 5-year-old wants to nap but what I wouldn’t give these days for a nice cozy afternoon snooze!

NAR Š 2023

Sunday’s Six Sentence Story Word Prompt!

This is “School Days” by The Runaways.

35 thoughts on “THE PIG JIG”

  8. ayiiee! the world as it is to us at such an age…. everything new, strange, tall and, on occasion*, scary,

    *the janitor in my elementary school had an ‘office’ in the basement, next to the steam boiler. the stuff of 1980s horror movie franchises lol

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

Tell me what you're thinking. 🖊️