She's Laughing About it Now

This photo of three of Elizabeth’s children was taken on Labor Day. That is Benjamin at the back, carefully loading into a handy truck some of the tons of rock that Ernie moved in. For the last five years Elizabeth has been warning us that she will break down and cry inconsolably on Benjamin’s first day in kindergarten. Lately she has been expressing concern about him going to school on the bus. “Nonsense”, we said, “those are just freak cases you read about in the newspaper once or twice a year."

So yesterday Benjamin packed his snack in his back-pack and went off, not entirely joyfully, on the school bus. At the end of the afternoon, Elizabeth was at the bus stop to meet him and find out about the first day of school. No Benjamin. She jumped on the bus to see if he was waiting for her. No Benjamin. The bus-driver radioed back to school. No Benjamin. The bus-driver then radioed all the other buses to see if anyone had an extra little boy. Finally they located Benjamin, who had been loaded onto the wrong bus in spite of his label with the right number writ large. So eventually Benjamin, who wasn’t even aware that he had been lost, was re-united with his mom, who had made lots of friends among sympathetic parents and drivers.

Benjamin likes the bus. He likes kindergarten. But he says it’s time to give it a rest.