For Ex-Kindergarteners, It’s Deja Vu

At an unusual gathering this week, Jeff Safian was reminded of a long-forgotten slice of life in kindergarten--the day Heather Aguilera wet her pants while waiting for him to get out of the bathroom.

“I must have stayed in there too long,” Safian, now an El Toro High School senior, said sheepishly.

“I was wearing my new Ronald McDonald pants,” Aguilera recalled, “and I was so bummed I cried and went home.”

She took a lot of ribbing from the rest of the class, but she’s long since forgiven Safian, she said, flashing a broad smile across the room.

Both were reminiscing with kindergarten buddies, like Bill Yarrington, also an El Toro High School senior who admitted that he still has the rubber band ball he made in kindergarten. In its early stages, a few rubber bands covered a wad of tinfoil in the center. He added to it and brought it to “show and tell” for six years so his friends could watch it grow to the size of a basketball.

Safian, Aguilera and Yarrington are graduates of the first kindergarten class at La Madera Elementary School in El Toro. They were among about 40 students from the class of 1977-78 who returned to the school for a reunion Wednesday night that, for the most part, was an occasion for good-natured kidding among friends who have known each other long enough to get away with it.

Charlene MacDonald, the only one of the four kindergarten teachers at La Madera in 1977 who is still teaching there, joined in the fun.

“One, two, three, please stop and look at me,” she sang softly when it was time for a few welcoming remarks, and the high school seniors immediately fell silent--just as they had learned to do in kindergarten.

The deja vu was palpable as the students greeted each other warmly and giggled over the four 1977-78 class pictures that had been blown up to poster size. Prominent in one photo was the long-departed but well-remembered Buffy, the class guinea pig that students took turns taking home on holidays.

Although most of the students now attend El Toro High School, they haven’t been together as a group since kindergarten. Which might explain some of the awkward silences--and the clusters of girls on one side of the room and boys on the other that gradually broke down as laughter brought them together.

“This is a trip, man,” said Mike Yetzbacher, who couldn’t remember any of the girls as they were 12 years ago, “because I didn’t talk to any girls in kindergarten.”

But Tony Gaetano seemed to speak for many when he said, “It’s no big shocker”--meaning that he recognized all of his kindergarten cronies. And that a number of them have grown up to be just what everyone expected--including the girl who out-dressed her teachers and is now a model, and the big boy nicknamed “the Campbell’s soup kid” who is now a burly football player.

If there was any shock, it was felt mostly by the teachers who, as MacDonald said, remember the students when they “were only waist high.”

“They’re so large,” she marveled, watching them interact like a proud parent.

They looked particularly large at that moment because a number of them had wandered into their old kindergarten classroom. Some tested the endurance of pint-sized chairs--”My legs won’t fit under the table,” Jeff Kumer complained--while others wrapped their long limbs around tricycles that they managed to maneuver briefly.

“Things are a little small,” observed Dave Cuttrell, an El Toro high football player who--at 6 feet, 5 inches tall and 245 pounds--towers over his former teachers and classmates.

Even the giant Tinker Toys seemed small to the students, who also nostalgically examined familiar puppets and blocks--and a guitar that reminded them of the many musical moments they shared in MacDonald’s class.

MacDonald didn’t just teach them songs. She also sang whenever she gave them directions, because early in her 25-year teaching career--”out of sheer desperation”--she learned that she could get their attention more quickly that way.

“I still sing in rhyme 95% of the time in my classroom,” she said. “It creates a light, cheerful environment.”

It also awakens a love for music in some students that lasts well beyond kindergarten. Jennifer Beaver, a former student of MacDonald’s, said her kindergarten teacher inspired her to pursue a career in music.

The teachers were elated to hear of such plans for the future, but they couldn’t resist looking back. Students endured such comments as former kindergarten teacher Dee Gruenig’s memory of Bill Yarrington: “He wouldn’t get in line to get on the bus. He was always doing something else. He had a lot of spunk, and he got away with it because he was cute.”

Yarrington blushed and quietly slipped back into the crowd, where even football players from rival schools were mixing amiably.

Kevin Rowe, another El Toro high football player, remembers fighting over blocks and Legos with boys who later became his teammates.

“Now we’re real good friends,” he said.

MacDonald planned the reunion to give the students a chance to see each other before going off to college--”and to celebrate the first La Madera kindergarten class to go through high school.”

The students have grown up in a small-town atmosphere in spite of the burgeoning growth that surrounds their neighborhood.

The elementary school is just across the street from El Toro High School, providing a daily reminder of their roots. And they’re used to seeing their longtime friends in the hallways, even if they haven’t remained close.

“It’s amazing they’ve kept these friendships all these years,” said Cathy Lee, a La Madera teacher who had many of the students in second grade. “That’s unusual with kids moving around so much today.”

Unusual perhaps. But not surprising to the teacher who brought them together.

“They’ve grown up to be such wonderful human beings,” MacDonald said. “We usually don’t get to see them grown, and it’s so rewarding. It makes me feel so proud it brings tears to my eyes.

“It’s like reaping the harvest. There are moments when things are stressful as a teacher. This makes it all worthwhile.”

Sherry Angel is a regular contributor to Orange County Life.