Stripes of Green and Blue

This is red ribbon week at our elementary school.

(At first, I was puzzled that they were teaching AIDS awareness to kindergarten and first grade students. But these red ribbons are for Drug Prevention. Aha. So many ribbons... Hard to keep up.)

Monday was Red Shirt Day. Tuesday was Football Jersey Day. Today was Crazy Hair Day.

Perhaps there is another mother who didn't remember. But I saw no evidence of my kindred spirit.

Tucker, hyper aware of first grade social norms, was paralyzed. How could I expect him to step into the crazy hair fray with perfectly normal hair?!

I was scrambling in my purse for hair ties, rubber bands, lipstick, paper clips, anything that would save the day. None of my suggestions were adequate.

And then we saw Mr. O. He had painted his beard in rainbow stripes, and he sensed the apprehension emanating from our car.

"Hey, guys. I think I have more hair paint in my backpack. Want some?"

Mr. O came to the rescue with stripes of blue and green. Their heads looked like extremely crusty replicas of the earth.

Mr. O gave them crazy hair. And he gave them confidence.