Winter Wonderland

As I was driving to work one Friday morning I tuned my radio to 106.9, an all-Christmas radio station. It was still dark outside, the sky was clear, stars sparkling and it was so cold you could see your breath. While waiting for the traffic light to change the song "Winter Wonderland" came on and as I heard the lyrics, "Sleigh bells ring are you listening" ... in my mind I was right back on stage at Kennedy Grade School for the Christmas program ... probably in the 4th grade.
If you attended this school you are probably familiar with the math teacher who walked with a yardstick as a symbol of authority and threw chalk and erasers at students in his class. Most of us were terrified around him. He told us before the program started that ANYONE caught goofing off during the performance would be immediately removed from the stage.
Now ... if you attended Kennedy school or grew up in the neighborhood ... you'll recognize who I'm talking about in my flashback to the past. From kindergarten on this guy (I will not mention names!) was always in trouble and everyone was afraid of him as he got older. Several years ago we attended a church in a small community. One of my fellow grade school classmates was the pastor of one of the churches in town. His sermon was on David & Goliath and in his illustration he used this guy as an example of being afraid of someone bigger than you .... you see, he is a Legend in our school and in the NE community.
Well, as you can probably guess, this young student couldn't control himself during the program. He was on the back riser in the row behind me and all I remember is a hand coming through the back curtain pulling him by the neck off the stage. We knew the "math teacher" had him. We continued singing the rest of the song in perfect obedience ...
A beautiful sight, we're happy tonight. Walking in a winter wonderland ....
Hearing this song that morning brought a smile to my face as I continued my commute to work ... at an elementary school. How times have changed!