This is the first week of school for the kids here in Vegas and I can’t believe that my nephew is now in the second grade. It seems like just the other day that we took him to his first day of Kindergarten. I remember he was doing well until the kid next to him started crying - crying is putting it mildly, this kid threw himself on the floor and started kicking and yelling. He yelled louder than I’ve ever heard any other kid yell in my life and I’ve heard some pretty loud kids. As soon as the kid started yelling my nephew looked over to where his mom and I were standing and his eyes got all teary. I thought it was better to leave and let my sister stay with him a little longer because she is his mother and on the first day of school most kids want their mother.

I waited outside and thought about my first day of school so many years ago. I can almost picture my five year old self walking with my mom into Mrs. Butts Kindergarten classroom.

“Mom,“ I said looking up at my mother, “I don’t want to go to school. I already know all I need.“

My mom kind of laughed but still led me into Mrs. Butts classroom. Mrs. Butts was the meanest kindergarten teacher in the whole history of mean kindergarten teachers, but I guess if your last name is Butts you have to be mean because for your entire life everyone is going to make wise-ass remarks about your last name. As soon as I walked into her class she ordered me to sit at the round table with the kids that would later be known throughout the school as Booger-face Nick, Giant Jessica, and Morris the Cat. I would have a nickname too and that would be Pee-wee, and no it was not because I was a small kid. It was a name my uncle gave me after we came back from Germany and it just stuck with me for a long time. I came into the class with my nick-name the other kids got theirs as the year progressed.

Booger-face Nick got his name because one day while we were in the reading circle (the teacher’s aid would have us sit in a circle and then read to us) he started digging in his nose. I remember he was going at it like crazy. I thought he was trying to touch his brain or something. To this day I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone’s finger go up that far up their nose. Nick had a talent or a mighty small finger. He finally pulled out this long, slimy booger that just kept coming out of his nose. It seemed like it would never end. For some reason he thought that no one could see him do it, or maybe he just didn’t care if anyone saw him pull out the mother of all boogers from his nose while he was sitting in the reading circle. He pulled that booger out as if pulling out long slime boogers out your nose was a natural everyday thing to do. He tried to hide the booger under his chair, but Mrs. Butts caught him. Mrs. Butts may have been mean and she may not have been the smartest person in the classroom but she had a superpower of knowing when we weren’t doing what we were supposed to do like pulling a long slimy booger from our nose and trying to hide it under the chair.

“Nick!” She yelled making everyone, including the teacher‘s aid, jump. “Go get a paper towel and clean that from the bottom of the chair, then go wash your hands.”

From that moment on Nick went from being plain ol’ Nick to being Booger-face Nick. It was like he had achieved superhero status - one second he was a regular guy like the rest of us and the next he was BOOGER-FACE NICK!

Giant Jessica didn’t have any superpowers and she wasn’t a superhero of any sorts, she was just a regular girl, normal in every way except that she was a giant. She was a good head and shoulders taller than any boy in the classroom and as far as I can remember would be taller than most of the other kids her age until she reached junior high when everyone else would have their growth spurts and catch up to her.

Morris the Cat simply had the bad luck of being named Morris and at the time there was a cat food commercial where a cat would talk about his favorite cat food. When you’re in kindergarten most kids will just start to call you whatever name is easiest to call you and Morris the Cat was the easiest to call him. Morris the Cat didn’t really care that he was called that by most of the kids in the elementary school. He pretty much stayed to himself for most of the school year and I never saw him after kindergarten.

I was thinking about the kids in my past when my sister came out of my nephew’s kindergarten class. “I think he’s going to be alright.” she said smiling. “Do you even remember anything about when you were in kindergarten?

I looked toward the school and smiled.