My friend Michael got an eraser stuck in his nose. Later that year we burned a Zozobra

When I was in kindergarten, my friend Michael got a pencil eraser stuck up his nose. 

I'm not sure if he was my friend. Maybe a friend as a kindergartener looks at friends. In kindergarten, everyone in your class is "friend". As we get older, that's when we start to exclude people from our group. But in kindergarten... all the kids are friends. 

But Michael got an eraser stuck in his nose, and I was worried for him. I remember the room. It was bright. The windows were tall and the blinds were open. The room was flooded with sunshine. Sunshine, and the sobbing of Michael. 

I don't remember much of the details. I think the teacher (or one of the teachers, we had two) tried to retrieve the eraser. Now that I think about it, I wonder if them trying to get the eraser made it worse. I wouldn't know. Just seems like that would be the case. All I know is they couldn't get it, and a little later, Michael's mom came to pick him up. I don't remember the next day, I don't remember if I asked him if he was okay. He was okay, because I know he was in classes with me after that. 

A memory I'll never forget. Seared on my brain. 

This makes me think of other things within that class. I think that same year our class made an adobe house. Someone came to our school and taught us the techniques of making the bricks and stacking them. We got a little muddy, but it was very fun, as I recall. 

That same year also (and subsequent years) we burned a small Zozobra. It was so normal to me then, but now I look back and realize how strange this is. The janitor would construct it and do the burning. I don't remember any safety protocols in place. We were at a safe distance, I think. But there wasn't a firetruck close by in the event a stray ember caught our school on fire. 

It was awesome. I became very interested in the burning of Zozobra. I would draw Zozobra when I wasn't drawing dinosaurs. And then... I started to want to burn my own Zozobra. I started making them out of paper and popsicle sticks. One day, my wish came true. I found a lighter and went to the back of my house and burned my Zozobra. Wasn't the best idea. I remember getting in trouble for playing with a lighter. I could've burned my house down. Thankfully adobe houses don't seem to be very flammable from the outside. 

So yeah... no more home brewed Zozobras. We were close enough to Fort Marcy Park, though, that I could hear him moaning as he was burned every September. I think one year we even saw some of the flames in the distance. We definitely saw the fireworks after. 

Zozobra is coming up and I still enjoy it. Maybe I'll post some photos. Maybe not. Probably not. I'll forget. 

Here's some photos I took last year.