Leaping back to a February Leap Year

I was looking for an old photograph last night and I came upon one where this day was February 29th in a Leap Year instead of March 1st.

I was 27, teaching Kindergarten in a small town in Massachusetts. It was my 4th year of teaching, the third in that town after two years on the Canadian border in Van Buren, Maine. I did the math and was absolutely amazed to realize that Billy and Kris are now 47, or 48 even more shocking than how the years have crept up on me. Billy was giving me his money for
a small carton of milk to drink with the snack he had brought from home. We were sitting in our classroom circle, probably 24 kids or so, starting the 2 and a half hour public kindergarten day. I guess Kris was my helper that day, It would be fun to see them again and hear what they remember. 

I remember their faces and their names. My 26 years in that school system were fun, in the  days when 5 year olds were allowed to learn through structured activities AND play. It's all so academic now and I'm glad to be a retired early childhood educator and developmental advocate.

I have a series of photos from that class, my friend Ken took them. He was what we called the AV (Audio Visual) Specialist in those days. Ken also took the photos at our wedding 5 years ago. He must have been taking photos that month in 1976 for a slide presentation. I've put some others in the extras, my teaching partner, Mary, reading a story and me with the inflatable Letter people, a phonics/alpahabet recognition program we had to teach and some ABC paintings 

The old days, my young self and my long gone dark hair, where does the time go? I'm very glad it's March 1st today and not February 29th, we're closer to spring even though we have a snowstorm on the way!

For the Record,
This day came in cold and sunny. It has warmed up, but a snowstorm is on the way later tonight into tomorrow.

All hands looking forward to Saturday. T is scheduled to pick up a fat tired bike that she has had on order and our local bike shop is assembling. There should be snow for a christening ride.