(Old pictures of shawls I knitted from my book, with Marguerite’s red a mixing up of two different patterns.)

Dale from my childhood popped in with a comment on the post about our meeting up with her little sister and her husband. Cool!

When I was in  kindergarten, the grades were in checks and minuses. I got all checks–except one: I couldn’t skip. I could run, I could even walk without running (it was hard!) but I couldn’t get the hang of this heel up in the air and slide a little bit with one foot while the other does a little leap with knee held high, then heel up in the air/slide a little with the second foot while the first now does the leapy thing.

I had to go skip down the hallway just now for my muscle memory to re-teach my verbal brain how it’s done.

Darned if I could figure it out back then at all.  Besides, why would you want to constrict a good run like that anyway? But I was in school now, ergo one of the Big Kids (especially since I had two younger siblings) and this was what big kids were supposed to be able to do.

I didn’t like that minus.  And I sure didn’t like not having mastered the thing, especially when pretty much everybody else in my class had and if I didn’t get it down pat soon, who knows, what if my little sister just might before I did.

My Mom tried to teach me. I think even my Dad got in on it at one point–I do remember him cheering me on.

And then my sister Marian and her friend Dale made it their mission to not only teach me, but to make it fun, and so we did a hop skip and a jump together–no, no, okay, like this, here, let’s try it again–from the end of the living room, down the hall, got to the end, turn, okay, let’s try it again, you’re getting there, GO!

And I got it! (Took a few tries.)

The crowd went wild! We even did practice runs together a few times after that, and darn if it didn’t turn out to actually be fun once I could do it.

And then there was the time I was trying to learn to tie my own shoes. My mom tried to teach me. This idea that I was supposed to do the mirror image of her motions as she knelt down in front of my feet was just totally throwing me.

She tried. Marian tried.

Let’s try Dale! Dale was called upon, Dale came over, Dale (who I think is left-handed but I’m not) showed me–and suddenly it made sense. Totally nailed that thing.

See what she started?  Look at the loops-in-loops I can make now!