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Day 306: Distinct preschool memories
Sep. 26th, 2012 07:52 pmI have various fragmentary memories of that age. I didn't have preschool, but daycare. First, a daycare run by the Salvation Army, and then a daycare that was a second business -- literally, it was housed in their former TV sales and repair shop -- for an older couple. The husband was horrible. He was a borderline perv, and there was a lot of sitting on his lap and I've repressed most of it, ew. Otherwise it wasn't bad, I guess. There was one ENORMOUS homemade playpen, three feet off the ground, with a base of plywood and sort of nylon chicken wire enclosing a carpeted area about ten feet by six feet. Or maybe it just seems that huge in my memory. I was older than the many, many babies inside that pen.
I also remember, from Mrs. Bricker's, that there were these tall islands, like kitchen islands, maybe even NEAR the cooking area, and that there were often two or three or more small infants seated in these hella flimsy plastic sort of pre-car seats. Remember, there were no car seats in the early 1970s. I wonder if I can find a picture on the internets. Looking up from my height of two feet or whatever, this seemed like a dangerous practice.
This is LIKE those, but those did not have any padding. The infants were just sort of propped up in them, and loosely belted in. And left there, on the countertops.
The other clear memory I have is of the cook, who wore white aprons and had a white hat, I think, and who had ENORMOUS stainless steel mixers, in which she made, among other things, industrial quantities of chocolate pudding. I also remember being forced to eat jello with cut up fruit in it and throwing up, as I had previously informed them I would, if made to consume it. I hate that shit. I mean, the combination of cut up fruit and jello. Jello by itself was... vaguely okay.
I also remember, from Mrs. Bricker's, that there were these tall islands, like kitchen islands, maybe even NEAR the cooking area, and that there were often two or three or more small infants seated in these hella flimsy plastic sort of pre-car seats. Remember, there were no car seats in the early 1970s. I wonder if I can find a picture on the internets. Looking up from my height of two feet or whatever, this seemed like a dangerous practice.
This is LIKE those, but those did not have any padding. The infants were just sort of propped up in them, and loosely belted in. And left there, on the countertops.
The other clear memory I have is of the cook, who wore white aprons and had a white hat, I think, and who had ENORMOUS stainless steel mixers, in which she made, among other things, industrial quantities of chocolate pudding. I also remember being forced to eat jello with cut up fruit in it and throwing up, as I had previously informed them I would, if made to consume it. I hate that shit. I mean, the combination of cut up fruit and jello. Jello by itself was... vaguely okay.