when we were young

Dear Chicken Nugget,

I spent most of the day thinking about my elementary school friends.  One of my oldest buddies, a guy I've been friends with since kindergarten, sent an email highlighting a piece another friend wrote and his own subsequent reflection.

Carly wrote a piece about our first grade class and where some of us are now. She called you "praiseworthy."   She used the word "lauded" in describing me as a science teacher.  God bless her and her words.

Your good-looking papi is in the second row, third from the left

My friend Rolando told the story of how Carly went from being his nemesis to becoming a friend.

I have great memories of both.  And today I spent a good deal of time lost in those memories.

I remember going to Carly's house to play and thinking how nice she was.  Super nice.  Her mom too.  Her mom once asked my mom for a recipe for Spanish rice.  Not sure why I remember that.  I also remember hiding a pair of earrings I got from a toy vending machine in her desk in the third grade.  I wasn't going for the earrings, that's just my luck.

Rolando is permanently etched in my mind since he was a constant presence.  Not only was he a good friend, his family was wonderful to me. He was the bold one and I was shy one and I was glad to play sidekick. I spent a lot of time at his apartment, playing video games, talking movies, discussing time travel, and going places. 

For that matter, the parents of my friends were responsible for me getting out of our cramped apartment often.  My friend Vanessa's dad took us to an antique car shows and to NYPD family events (he was a detective).  My friend Andres' parents took us to Mets games and on trips to Bear Mountain.

My mom, too, took the kids who lived on my block on trips to the Bronx Zoo and to weekly Junior Park Ranger meetings.

These memories led me to the already known conclusion that the reason my childhood is full of great memories with these kids was that our parents were incredible.  It's with their active influence that we experienced what we did and had the fun we had.

As a parent, I hope that I can do for you what they did for us.

And, I hope that you end up meeting a bunch as awesome as ours when you get to school.


Eternally yours,

Tu papa