Spring Valley.

Ah, the wonders of Facebook.  You can say what you like about it, and it kind of drives me crazy when people treat it like a Twitter account, but it has been an amazing cavieat for bringing people together.  Most recently, a group of kids I went to elementary school with (all now in our 40s - gasp!) have put together a little reunion of sorts to take place at the end of May.      I spent my elementary school years at a wonderful school called Spring Valley, in Millbrae, California.  Picture if you will wide classroom with entire walls of windows, open to the California breezes, low, slopping roof-lines, and an occasional palm tree.  The black-top playgorund seemed endless to us children, and it was a really neat playground because it had plenty of tether-ball courts and hard ball courts.  In around my 3rd grade year the school added on a huge grassy field with mound after mound of grassy low hills and we would run up and over those hills till we lost our breath.  They even had the ingenuity to create an outdoor stage where we did plays.  One of our favorite playground games (well for the girls anyway) was "Pixies and Goblins" where the Goblins (the bad girls) would chase the Pixies (the good girls, and my side of choice) around the playground and try to take them to their team.
     In the photo above are many of those same classmates having the reunion.  To the right is one of the most amazing teachers I ever had: Mr. Tarantino.  He was so creative for his time, and he introduced us into creating bonzai plants.  I remember walking down to Peters & Wilsons nursery and pick out pots, rocks, and plants to create our bonzai.  At some point during my elementary years, Mr. Tarantino had his thumb cut off by a wood-working saw.  They sewed it back on, so he had this thumb that stock straitght out all the time.  He never let it slow him down.