It was at my 5th birthday party that I first learned it. This idea of others. We had set up the basement of our green house on Van Dyke Road two days before the party. It didn’t take long for me to be accomplished at each game. I could drop the clothespins in the glass with great accuracy. As well as pin the tail on the donkey taped to the wall. I could blow up a balloon and pop it between my knees at lightning speed. And my reflexes for Gnip Gnop were catlike, surpassed only by my ability to straddle any color on the plastic Twister sheet.
My mother laid the prizes beside each game station. We picked them out at the Ben Franklin the weekend before. “You’re excited for your birthday, aren’t you?” She asked as I kept honing my skills. “Oh, yes,” I said, as the wooden clothes pin clinked in the bottom of the glass jar. “You know you’ll be getting lots of presents from your friends…” she said. I couldn’t stop smiling. “But you want them to have fun too…” “Sure!” I said. “Ok,” she said. I was fairly certain she was teaching me something, but I was too excited to ask what.
One by one they arrived. Wrapped gifts in hand. Off brand tape pealing from the edges. My legs jimbly with anticipation. I had heard Mrs. Strand, our kindergarten teacher once say, as David Holte poured his entire bottle of milk on the floor, that she was “hopping mad!” I assumed I was hopping excited! When the gifts were neatly stacked and all my Washington Elementary friends had arrived, it was time to play the games. Wendy Shoeneck was leading at the pin drop. I was next in line. I kneeled on the chair and aimed my pin. I saw Wendy gazing at the prize. I saw my mother in half smile. And I felt like the luckiest girl in the world to have a basement filled with love. I know my mom wouldn’t have said anything, either way. She was a gentle teacher. I moved my hand slightly off center and dropped the pin to the floor. Wendy jumped — she was hopping happy — and clung the prize to her chest.
I don’t presume to tell you what to do. My mother taught me that. I half smile in your direction. You already know.
