Women's League Day Care Center

My early lessons taught,
Were delivered...
At the Women's League Day Care Center,
In Hartford, Connecticut.

I had to have been all of two,
Or maybe 3 years old...
When I first began the beginning,
Of an aware consciousness.

I though my mother was giving me away!
And I was quick to show everyone,
Within listening distance...
I didn't like it at all!

I remember Mrs. Hines!
And the wrought iron encased stairsteps,
To the dismal West Avon Street joint.
Right off of Main Street.
A stone's throw...
From Bellevue Square.
A tenement project,
I loved and hated equally.

OH!
I forgot.
This is a poem.
Not a Declaration of Independence.

Well,
Anyway...
The Women's League Daycare Center,
Was extremely significant in my growth process.
I didn't realize it,
Until I was well into my 20's...
What a gift, my sister Mimmie and I, were given.

Gee...
That was back in either 1949 or '50!
And Mim and her husband AL,
Are GRANDPARENTS.
You know...
My mother 'always' told us,
God works in mysterious ways.
And to this day,
I'd like to know...
How my niece, Shayla
And my nephew, Landry...
My sisters Tammy and Lisa,
Get to be...
So much 'older' than me?
Do we 'not' share the same genes?

OH!
This could go on and on.
I feel it!

Dedicated:
To the Women's League Day Care Center,
a name I knew it as for 'many' years.
Located in Hartford, Connecticut.
'Probably the first day care center established,
in the country. Who knows? I'm a writer/poet...
not an historian.
Although, I'm beginning to feel like a dinosaur.
A youthful one, I might add.'

~lsp~

poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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