Zachary, Student of the Month
This may or may not ber posted already, but it was prompted by our drive in the Porsche up to Corte Madera, in January, I think, and I fear to lose the thought. Also, I have pictures to add.
At the Reed Elementary School in Tiburon, each student is honored in kindergarten as "Student of the Week." My grandson, Zachary, was the recipient of this honor, and as the honoree, he was able to have someone of his choosing come in to make a presentation. He requested that Grampa bring his Porsche to school so that Zachary could surprise his classmates who expected to find the engine up front and a trunk in the back. As this was pretty big stuff in kindergarten, we made our plans and searched the internet for Porsche content suitable for 5 year olds. I found a page from a coloring book and printed out 20 copies, and since Lin was supposed to tell the class about the car, we searched for children's books about Porsches. There were not a lot of choices.
I found something in the "Hot Car Series," for 9 year olds, and located an inexpensive used edition for this one day show, and it arrived from Albris, the postage and handling costing far more than the book.
As the rollcage takes up the 2 rear jump seats and we were transporting forgotten items that had been left behind at Christmas, the Porsche was packed to the gills when we set off for the 425 mile trip from Santa Ana to Corte Madera at 04:45 on Wednesday, hoping to beat the rush hour traffic that slows I-5 to a crawl in downtown Los Angeles. All went very well until we encountered some rain going up the Grapevine after Castaic. It was in the high 30's. As we went up higher, the temperature dropped to 33 degrees and the rain turned to heavy blowing snow! Speed dropped off to 40 or less due to visibility, and traffic bunched under Highway Patrol escort. No mishaps, and the snow immediately melted, but I was suddenly transported to my youth in Chicago, and memories of the snow falling in the streetlights while I watched from atop the radiator of our second floor apartment on Troy Street.
The rain was a constant from Wednesday through Friday night, so there was no question of washing the car to make a good impression. On Wednesday, we went to Reed for the Winter Concert in honor of Martin Luther King's birthday and watched class after class performing, "Michael Row the Boat Ashore," and other folk songs and tributes. Just a wonderful innocence and a tribute to the American Dream as it was taught to us.
Friday was Zachary's time to introduce us to his classmates, and our time on stage, crumpled into little chairs with Zachary between us. Fearing that the rain would keep everyone indoors, I had taken photos of the amazing turn around where the engine is under the "trunk" and the luggage goes under the "hood." I tried to relate Porsche, the inventor, to another car, the Volkswagen which Porsche created in the 1930's, and all of this to Herbie, and then tried to keep the theme from going far afield as this awakened more associations than I was prepared for.
Mrs. Ritola managed to keep the class from going totally out of control. Meanwhile, Zachary was whispering to Lin, "Tell them about the license plate. It means pee!" To my horror, as I hadn't heard the prompting from Zachary to Lin, she started to explain TINKLL, the license plate, to the 20 kindergarteners. Mrs. Ritola cut in, when Lin used the word, "urine", to explain that this was the correct word for pee pee. Lin explained that I was a doctor and that was what I dealt with.... to the kindergarteners! I found myself trying to explain what kidneys do.
Tobe continued.... probably
At the Reed Elementary School in Tiburon, each student is honored in kindergarten as "Student of the Week." My grandson, Zachary, was the recipient of this honor, and as the honoree, he was able to have someone of his choosing come in to make a presentation. He requested that Grampa bring his Porsche to school so that Zachary could surprise his classmates who expected to find the engine up front and a trunk in the back. As this was pretty big stuff in kindergarten, we made our plans and searched the internet for Porsche content suitable for 5 year olds. I found a page from a coloring book and printed out 20 copies, and since Lin was supposed to tell the class about the car, we searched for children's books about Porsches. There were not a lot of choices.
I found something in the "Hot Car Series," for 9 year olds, and located an inexpensive used edition for this one day show, and it arrived from Albris, the postage and handling costing far more than the book.
As the rollcage takes up the 2 rear jump seats and we were transporting forgotten items that had been left behind at Christmas, the Porsche was packed to the gills when we set off for the 425 mile trip from Santa Ana to Corte Madera at 04:45 on Wednesday, hoping to beat the rush hour traffic that slows I-5 to a crawl in downtown Los Angeles. All went very well until we encountered some rain going up the Grapevine after Castaic. It was in the high 30's. As we went up higher, the temperature dropped to 33 degrees and the rain turned to heavy blowing snow! Speed dropped off to 40 or less due to visibility, and traffic bunched under Highway Patrol escort. No mishaps, and the snow immediately melted, but I was suddenly transported to my youth in Chicago, and memories of the snow falling in the streetlights while I watched from atop the radiator of our second floor apartment on Troy Street.
The rain was a constant from Wednesday through Friday night, so there was no question of washing the car to make a good impression. On Wednesday, we went to Reed for the Winter Concert in honor of Martin Luther King's birthday and watched class after class performing, "Michael Row the Boat Ashore," and other folk songs and tributes. Just a wonderful innocence and a tribute to the American Dream as it was taught to us.
Friday was Zachary's time to introduce us to his classmates, and our time on stage, crumpled into little chairs with Zachary between us. Fearing that the rain would keep everyone indoors, I had taken photos of the amazing turn around where the engine is under the "trunk" and the luggage goes under the "hood." I tried to relate Porsche, the inventor, to another car, the Volkswagen which Porsche created in the 1930's, and all of this to Herbie, and then tried to keep the theme from going far afield as this awakened more associations than I was prepared for.
Mrs. Ritola managed to keep the class from going totally out of control. Meanwhile, Zachary was whispering to Lin, "Tell them about the license plate. It means pee!" To my horror, as I hadn't heard the prompting from Zachary to Lin, she started to explain TINKLL, the license plate, to the 20 kindergarteners. Mrs. Ritola cut in, when Lin used the word, "urine", to explain that this was the correct word for pee pee. Lin explained that I was a doctor and that was what I dealt with.... to the kindergarteners! I found myself trying to explain what kidneys do.
Tobe continued.... probably