I pull into the parking lot of Westport
Elementary School. My seven-year-old son, Cameron, leads the way carrying his
black Hyundai blanket that he’s had since he was a baby and his brown dog
shaped pillow pet. He is wearing black jogging pants and a SpongeBob t-shirt
because he was embarrassed to wear his pajamas.
We arrive at the cafeteria where the second grade will be watching “Puss
and Boots” for their semi-annual movie night. In the front of the large room is
a stage with a projector screen coming down the center of it and an American
flag off to the side. There are tables lined up in three rows with 10 tables in
each row. There is a large window and an exit door, which has been left open on
the right wall. The window looks out to a large tree with bushes surrounding it
and a cement bench in the center. You can see part of the school parking lot.
Up against the back wall are several bulletin boards with upcoming events,
information about after school programs, healthy food choices for children, and
safe temperatures for outdoor recess. On that same wall is the entrance to the
schools kitchen. I didn’t enter the room, but from what I can see from the
doorway is a large table and deep sinks. Off of that back wall is a corridor
that leads to the schools gym and a storage closet. Along the left wall is a
mural of the jungle. It portrays several trees one with a snake curled around
it and another with a monkey hanging by a branch. In the middle there is a pond
with elephants cooling themselves off. At the end of the wall are double doors
that lead to the hallway.
I spot a woman with blond hair and
glasses barking orders at a young boy, her son. He is wearing basketball shorts
and sneakers with a uniformed t-shirt. He looks too old to be in second grade
and I realize he must be playing basketball with the fourth graders in the gym
today. I walk over to the woman and introduce myself, “Hi my name is Jessica I
think we spoke on the phone.” She replies in a deep tone “Yes I’m Sarah and I
can’t do much today because I’ve hurt my shoulder.” She then briefly tells me
how the routine of the evening will go. She starts by telling her son, Cameron,
and I to start moving tables. We move most of them out of the way so the
children will have room to sit and watch the movie. Cameron gives up after he
moves a few and finds a spot on the floor to watch “Puss and Boots”. I finish
sliding the tables evenly to the right and left walls leaving a few in the back
of the room so the students can sit and eat when the pizza arrives. When I look
up I see a few more mothers have joined us with their children. Sarah instructs
me to get the popcorn machine out of the closet and begin making popcorn. I am
completely clueless on how to make popcorn so thankfully two mothers offered to
take on the task.
At 5:55 the children begin to
arrive. The parents check their children in at the door and each child receives
a ticket, some receive more than one. They pile into the room some carrying
blankets, pillows, and a few students brought in a beanbag chair. Almost half
of the students had pillow pets. Some were brown, some were green, each
depicting a different animal. I noticed many students wore their pajamas and
slippers, others had on jogging pants and only a few wore jeans. The boy’s
pajamas were blue or red and each depicting a superhero. The majority of the girl’s
pajamas depicted Disney princesses. One girl wore white pajamas with frogs on
them and frog slippers. The room became very loud as more children entered the
room seventy-four in all, but within a few minutes Sarah was at the front of
the room yelling “I will be starting the movie so find your places and quiet
down!” The students quiet down once they see Puss and Boots on the projector. We
shut the lights off and close the curtain and the scent of popcorn fills the
room. I watch Sarah circle the room yelling at students to quiet down. Always
targeting three boys who can’t seem to sit still. I make my way over to the
popcorn machine. It reminds me of the circus. It is red and gold and on wheels.
I offer to help fill the Ziploc bags with popcorn. I hear tires spinning
outside so I go see where the sound is coming from and see it is the pizza deliveryman
backing onto the grass to the back door. Sixteen Papa John’s pizza boxes fill
the back table. I am handed a pair of gloves and a pizza box and a told to put
a slice on each plate. As I do this Sarah makes an announcement instructing
students to make their way to the tables with their tickets. It is like a stampede
as the students make their way to the tables to find a seat. Maybe that’s why
they have painted the jungle on the walls. After each child has a slice of
pizza I walk around asking each child if they would like water or lemonade.
Most of them choose lemonade. Each student is instructed to leave their tickets
on the table and this will determine how many slices of pizza they have
ordered. One ticket means one slice, two tickets two slices, ect. Volunteers
walk around the room adding slices of pizza to the plates of the students who
have ordered more than one. Most of the girls ordered only one slice and most
of the boys ordered two. One boy ordered three and I didn’t think he would
finish it, but he proved me wrong. He sat at the table until it was gone. Once
most of the students had finished they were instructed by Sarah to pick up
their plates, napkins, and cups and throw them in the trash and go back to
their spots on the floor.
She put the second half of the movie back on
and it wasn’t as quiet as the first half. The students are restless, tired of
watching the movie. There was a constant stream of students for the remainder
of the night using the bathrooms. The bathrooms are located right outside the
door in the hallway. Each time a student went to the bathroom we made sure
their shoes were on their feet and an adult accompanied them in the hallway. When
it was my turn I took two boys. From the hallway I could hear them talking
about the movie and parts that made them laugh.
It was time to hand out popcorn,
well not so much hand out rather throw bags of popcorn. The students were
spread out across the floor some lying down on their blankets and some sitting
up, either way making it very difficult to pass out popcorn without tripping
over a pillow pet or a child. After the children have the popcorn the real fun
begins. The same three boys Sarah had been yelling at all night broke out into
a popcorn fight, all I could see from where I am standing in the back of the
room is popcorn flying in the air. Sarah instantly took away their popcorn and
separated them. After a few minutes passed all I could hear was popping of the
popcorn bags. A different group of boys and girls thought of that. Sarah then
stepped in front of the room and yelled at them to stop or there would not be
any more movies nights. Of course, popcorn makes you thirsty and when the boys
and girls asked for a drink they were refused because all the drinks had been
put away. When a girl asked me I took her to the hallway where I had seen a
bubbler on my way in.
At the end of the movie the room
became very loud with the students talking to each other. Two girls made up a
dance and were performing their steps for anyone who watched. It wasn’t long
before the lights were turned back on and Sarah was yelling at the students to
collect their things and move to the side of the room so the mothers could
sweep up the popcorn. I walked around offering to help find shoes, or fold
blankets. With Sarah yelling at twenty seconds to hurry up. Before I knew it
the other mothers had the floor swept and the tables put back to normal. The
students were instructed to stand against the left wall and wait for their
parents to pick them up. One by one each student was picked up. When most of
the students had left the remaining few, including Cameron, became tired of
standing against the wall and started a game of tag. Sarah yelled “knock it
off!” At 8:01 all the students had been picked up. Cameron and I walked out to
the parking lot towards our car and I asked him how his night was he responded “it
was fun but that lady is mean” I replied “I couldn’t agree more.”
