From My Window

From the window of my classroom I sometimes watch the kids play in the public pool. One morning, splashing and playing all by itself, was a lone seagull.

"Fannah"

When I made a quick stop at the local market to pick up a few items, I noticed parked at the curb was the station wagon of my youth; not a station wagon similar to the one we had when I was little, but THE station wagon my mom owned; I knew because it had the same license plate as when I was a kid and I remember it vividly because we called the car "Fannah" because the 3 letters on the plate were FNA; seeing the old car brought back memories of summer day trips to the natural history museum when it was my mom's turn to entertain the group of us neighborhood kids or of our little dog who would jump from the rear to the middle to the front and back again while on his way to the groomers for his regular 6 week standing appointment; amazing how this car is still in circulation after over 45 years; I doubt when my daughter is 50 years old that she'll see our old van still in circulation; the phrase "they don't make them like they used to" pops in my head and thinking that makes me feel all my 50+ years.