The Pinata and the Clown

Mrs. Bernard was my 1st Grade teacher at Ernest C. Myer Elementary School. She was an Upstate NY transplant direct from Boston. She was one of my favorite teachers and she seemed to applaud the fact when any of her students were different. With her Boston accent, she would read us stories and we would laugh whenever she said words like "park" or "car."

One of the best things about being in Mrs. Bernard's class was that every year she put on a big carnival for her students. This was a big announcement on the very first day of class in September. We spent a good part of the school year preparing for the carnival. She would split us up into groups and we would be assigned a committee: decorations, games, prizes and refreshments. I, of course, pleaded to be on the decoration committee and immediately commanded my group to come up with a theme. I don't quite remember what the theme was, but I remember vetoing several themes that the group collectively came up with and settling for one that involved cutting out giant circus animals from construction paper and scotch taping them to the huge classroom windows.

We always had a Room Mother. I remember thinking that whoever was the Room Mother that year, my Mom would do a much better job than they did. My Mom was incredibly creative and she would come up with a theme and stick to it to the point where we would be driving all over town looking for the proper colored paper plates and matching plasticware. There was no stopping my mother- she could pull off a theme on a budget in a day. However, my Mom worked full-time and Jayne's Mom didn't. So Jayne's Mom was the Room Mother. Jayne was a sweet girl who even though my birthday would be after the last day of school, she would bring me a gift. She was sad for me that my birthday did not fall in the school year and we couldn't have cupcakes for lunch. Sometimes my birthday would be the last day of school and that is a holiday that cannot be trumped by a grade schooler's birthday, although my Mom always sent me with the cupcakes if that was the case.

Surely the Room Mother was responsible for gathering parents, permission slips and donations to these crazy causes. They always seemed to miss out on every holiday except for Halloween and Valentine's Day. I always thought St. Patrick's Day was a big miss. Halloween, we would get something like a popcorn ball in a paper bag with a ghost on it and Valentine's Day, a box of Conversation Hearts with "From: the PTA" written with a ball point pen. I don't know how much time and money these things took up, but my Mom never really seemed to have the time to become involved. You couldn't blame her, with a 2 year-old at home, a first-grader and a full-time job. I don't remember ever complaining that she wasn't my Room Mother or even mentioning that she should be.

The Carnival day finally arrived. I remember being filled with excitement and Mrs. Bernard telling us that we would begin after lunch. Immediately following a dreadful lunch, we all lined up outside of the classroom door. She finally let us inside and many of the kids' parents had shown up and were waiting for us. They manned all of the booths set up- fishing, throwing a bean bag through a clown's mouth, and a ring toss, of course. There were also candied apples and even a little bag of dollar-store party favors with our names on it sitting at each of our desks.

Then came the pinata. The pinata was not store-bought, but one that we had made in art class with Mrs. Barrish. A basic craft consisting of a punching balloon and newspaper dipped in glue. The sad part of it, there was no design. Mrs. Barrish was probably more of an abstract artist herself and she insisted the entire class have a go at decorating it. Well. This pinata was painted so many times, it became brown and it had a few feathers, popsicle sticks and clothespins stuck to it. But that's okay, we all saw the candy being loaded a few days before so the janitor could help Mrs. Bernard hang it from the ceiling.

We stood in line to be blindfolded and spun around by one of the parents. Each of us took one turn to hit the pinata. I was not in front of the line, so I anticipated that I'd have to step on a few kids to get the candy that I knew I would leave school with.

Surprisingly, none of the kids ended up hitting the pinata. It was finally my turn and one of the parents blindfolded me. They spun me around and walked me toward the pinata and told me to take a shot. I missed. I reached to take my blindfold off and there was a clown standing in front of me. One that I did not recognize. A painted on red nose, a wig and a funny plaid clown costume. Everyone was staring at me. I finally realized that it was my Mom. She had taken the afternoon off to come be a clown at my school carnival! She gave me a big hug and we went off to play some games together. After awhile, I started recognizing my Mom's costume- old clothes my Dad had probably painted in with a few added decorations- something she came up with last minute. This, a perfect example to the theme on a budget in a day.

Not only did my Mom come for the carnival, but she stayed and gave me a ride home so I didn't have to take the bus that day. I remember my Smurfs lunchbox being completely overloaded with candy: tootsie rolls (and not just the chocolate ones, but the fruit-flavored ones too), starbursts, pop rocks, Smarties, Lemonheads, those little caramel candies with the white, chalky centers, my candied apple wrapped in waxed paper and tied with a rubberband, and my leftover cracker jax still in the box.

Someone eventually broke open the pinata because that must be where I got my bag of candy but all I can remember is being so happy that my Mom was with me at school for my carnival.