What made you smile today?

My daughter's school had a concert/ holiday program. All the first graders. The format was that there were songs, then kids would say a line they'd memorized from a sort of description of a specific holiday from a specific place, then more songs, etc. The kids did great. Well-rehearsed, did what they were supposed to do when they were supposed to do it, etc.

Then a classmate of sozlet's, was supposed to say his line and just froze. He kept trying, and just couldn't quite get it out. He slapped his forehead in a "duh" kind of way and smiled but you could see he was really hurting. He kept trying, and kept not being able to do it, and finally kind of crumpled and started crying and went back to his seat and sat there with his head buried in his hands.

The program went on.

I felt so badly for him, and was imagining what kind of an impact this sort of thing could have. It's so small in the scheme of things but he obviously felt totally humiliated. He was the only kid to mess up, at all, and he did so rather spectacularly.

Then after a while, he came down to deliver another line (most kids only had one). He came to the microphone and the whole audience -- a huge audience, standing-room only -- kind of collectively held its breath. There was no applauding during the show, it just went seamlessly from one section to the next, but I planned to clap if he made it through.

He was SO focused... and he did it! Galloped right through, no errors.

I went ahead and started to clap and then looked away from him/ looked at the audience around me -- everyone was already clapping!!! (I didn't start it.) He had just spun around after delivering his line to go back to his seat, and then he kind of froze and then looked over his shoulder -- like, whoa, is that for me?? And then flashed a little grin and continued on to his seat. All of his classmates gave him high-fives on the way.

It was incredibly sweet. I smiled for a lot of reasons -- for him, and for the fact that I live in such a nice community.

may i ask what year(s) you were there?
my dad was stationed there in the early 50's...

Slappy always makes me smile.

But, then again ...

I'm reminded of the First Sergeant I had at Army basic training many years ago at Ft. Dix, NJ. He would always greet any grinning new recruit with these words: "Don't smile at me. Smiling can lead to liking. And liking can lead to loving. And loving leads to f**king. And you don't wanna f**k with me, 'cruit!"

Realjohnboy has less then fond memories of Ft Dix.