It was a long time coming for me, returning to perform in an elementary school again, and I was glad to shake some of the rust off. I headed down the Blue Route to Wayne, PA for a 2 pm assembly for about 100 Kindergarteners and five teachers. I set up in a relatively small but carpeted assembly room. I parked my small amp, guitar in front of the stage, conversed with the PTA mom for a half hour and in came the kids. They seemed a little sluggish, but no matter.
I launched into I Like Peanut Butter, The Tuttie Tah, Giants and more. I was a little sluggish myself when I started Bear Hunt (.how many thousands of times I’ve done this?) but gathered my thoughts and pulled it off. I also forgot my bag of scarves for Jelly in the Dish so I was kicking myself for my lack of mental accuitity. It’s been two months since I’ve performed, and, with a bout of RSV and my cancer-recovery, I’ve been in a fog. I guess it’s creeping senior-ility.
Regardless, it was a good show, and we finished off dancing. I improvised Jelly by throwing in some dance moves in between verses, jumping up where I usually do the scarf-toss. It worked. My reflection session at the end was good, as well. The teachers liked the dancing, animals and rhyming with We Gave Names, and one teacher liked my reverse memorization that I did with Tutti Tah (we talked about the moves in reverse order) and more. I particularly like that, after the kids tell me what they liked, the adults in the room get to speak in front of the kids, reinforcing what we did outloud. I think the kids pick up on that.
I packed up, with the nice help of the PTA mom, and headed back to the Lehigh Valley. It was good to be back in the saddle after too long on the sidelines. I wish I could do it more often.