Saturday, June 19, 2010
2:12 AM
Skip-It
Lemon Twist. Great exercise and even more fun. I preferred my first one, though. It was called a "Skip-it" and it had a yellow plastic band that went around your ankle, and a cute little red bell on the end. I LOVED that one! When a friend showed up at school with one of the original Skip-Its, I had never seen one before and I fell in love with it instantly. I just had to have one so I went home that afternoon and tried to describe it to my mom. I didn't know what it was called and she couldn't begin to envision that which I was attempting to describe to her so the following Saturday, together, we embarked upon an adventure, determined to find my latest coveted toy. We looked downtown first. Ben Franklin's didn't have it and Woolworth didn't have it. I remember getting very worried at that point. I was afraid it was going to be one of those toys that could only be ordered through the catalog or found in the Tulsa toy stores. My mom did very little catalog ordering back in those days and we did even less traveling so if that had been the case, I probably would not have gotten one. Thankfully, after carefully scouring every inch of the toy aisles at Howard's Discount Store, I finally spotted my prize. It cost a little more than I was usually allowed to have on Saturdays (My mom always took me to town and bought me a toy on Saturdays - yeah Mom!) but because my mom knew I wanted it so badly, she let me get it anyway. I was so excited I could barely wait to get home to play with it. The following Monday, I took it to school and found that over the weekend, some other classmates had also talked their parents into getting Skip-It's for them. We all gathered in the school cafeteria that morning before classes began and skipped our delighted little hearts out. All of the teachers were fascinated by our new toy find, so much so that my teacher, Mrs. Frew, came over and asked me if she could try mine! That probably doesn't sound like such a big deal now but back then, teachers rarely let you see their human side. They were expected to be very stiff and serious in order to "set a good example". Pfffttt. Whatever. Mrs. Frew totally rocked my Skip-It and I was tickled beyond description to be the one whose toy she used. I loved her a lot even before that happened, but afterwards, I just thought she was the coolest teacher I had ever seen because she was willing to let her hair down in that way with us.
My sweet Mrs. Frew was killed about 15 years ago in a car accident. I cried off and on for two or three days although I hadn't seen her in several years. She had been my 3rd grade teacher and 3rd grade was my favorite elementary school year of all, mostly because of her. Every time I see a Skip-It of any kind, I am reminded of her and that special day when Mrs. Frew threw teacher protocol to the wind and "came out to play" with me.