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I attended Walnut Hill Elementary School in Dallas for kindergarten and first grade. It's where I lost my first tooth (eating an apple) and learned about Elvis (he died just before I started kindergarten, and one of my classmates was obsessed). I remember skipping down the halls, I was so happy to be there. I loved Mrs. Green and Mrs. Jones. I loved the playground and my friends. (I did not love the day that a sixth-grader stole my red purse, embroidered with my name and accessorized with a smiley face zipper pull.)
Walnut Hill was also Steve's school in sixth grade. We didn't overlap; we missed each other by a year. But we loved that we had that connection. We liked to drive by the Midway Road campus. I would tell the purse theft story, and he would tell the story of the day he tried a Superman move on the swing set and soared straight into gravel and tore up his face -- on the same day as the Student Council picnic.
I was devastated when the Oct. 20 Dallas tornados destroyed the venerable Walnut Hill campus.
The staff and students have relocated to another building for now. I wanted to do something for the staff, to provide comfort as they try to comfort children. Julianne volunteered to drive something to Dallas while I was teaching. So we put together a basket of hot chocolate supplies, and Julianne made sure the gift arrived on Nov. 4.
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Katie gave Starbucks gift cards to teachers and homemade cowboy cookies to friends. She also rode her bike after school to our local coffee shop to give cookies to the shop's owner, Michael, who always makes us smile.
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We delivered flowers to our neighborhood assisted living center. The director told us that someone else had delivered cookies, which the residents were enjoying with dinner, and that someone else had painted decorative rocks. He had a small "peace" rock in his pocket.
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We tipped generously over the weekend and treated a stranger to dinner. We delivered doughnuts to Hosp and Reedy.
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I gave cookies and gift cards and Kind bars to colleagues, and I placed hand soap in staff restrooms (the industrial stuff is hard on the hands over winter).
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We gave art supplies to two tiny friends new to our country, just adopted from Burundi.
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We delivered cookies to neighbors.
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Cooper treated a couple of Auburn friends to a nice dinner (his shrimp and grits sound a step above dorm food).
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