What In The World Did I Grab???

The Purple Marker…

When Jeannine asked me to stop, I closed my eyes and thought, “Oh, good.” And that thought was NOT in my happy voice. But after thinking for just a minute, it really should be happy. Purple is not my favorite color, so I’m not real sure why it is in my purse. I’m a pink girl through and through. BUT, this marker makes me think about Bailey and her favorite book, Purple, Green and Yellow. I read that book to her what seemed like from 3 to 5 years-old. She would turn the pages with her little hands and look at the colors and laugh before we turned to the next page. Usually, if the batteries were fresh, we would hear Billy Ray Cyrus sing “My Achy-Breaky Heart” for at least a half hour—mostly until Curt or I could not tolerate it one more second OR the Energizer Bunny batteries finally quit running…either way, sometimes I thought I could not BEAR to hear those sounds one more second.

The Purple, Green and Yellow phase lasted a LONG time, and although Bay struggled in reading in first grade, I was confident that she would pull through this little literacy hiccup and charge ahead. This was the case, and although the marker was initially an “oooooh”, now I think it is more of an “aaaahhh” and “ohhhhhh” than less than happy.

This marker also makes me think about my kinders. I’ve gone through withdrawl this year; switching form kinder teacher to 3-5 Literacy Coach. Of course, all the kids loved stopping by my office to draw a picture for me or use the cool scissors. They loved that I had markers, and I’m sure that this is one that I tossed in my purse from school and have been signing checks, making laundry lists and just gnawing on when the mood arises.

The possibility that I will be marker free is a scary one for me. I think that although there are definitely more appropriate writing tools, I love what this marker actually means to me. It’s my connection with the past and my small bit of rebellion against that thing called age that keeps following me around. I really do not feel 44 at all when I carry my marker.