Mrs. Forsythe’s annual Christmas play had a long history of bringing out the dramatic talents of her 2nd graders and along with her artistic ability made for a special evening for parents and students to share. But, this year the school board buckled under the pressure of one family that didn’t appreciate the whole Christmas theme, so any mention of Christianity was disallowed. Not one to buck the system, Mrs. Forsythe chose to do a play of nursery rhymes where three children read the words aloud while the rest wore costumes to act out the presentation. Not a lot of families were pleased with the board ruling, thus not many planned to come to watch the “Mother Goose Story” as it had been named in the local paper by another irate parent. Trying to make the best of an odd situation, the principal made the play open to all students from kindergarten to 4th grade hoping for at least the same level of participation usually received by the 2nd graders. Mrs. Forsythe was overwhelmed with the tryouts, but stuck to her guns on having the vocal auditions limited to the 2nd grade classes only. Three children were chosen to speak the stories of “Humpty Dumpty” and “The Ugly Duckling” and “Mary Had A Little Lamb.” Over sixty children were ready to take part in the play that was held on the last evening of school before Christmas vacation, a majority of them as soldiers trying to put a big egg puzzle together.

Mrs. Forsythe had settled on this idea after her original plan of Dr. Suess’s “How The Grinch Stole Christmas” was canned for being seen as revenge to the complaining family. That family had no child attending this school anymore thanks to a job promotion and subsequent transferal to another town.

After weeks of rehearsal and hours upon hours of help from oh so many parents, the play was about to go on.

The auditorium was packed with adults and older siblings ready for this new program, not knowing what to expect. Little Nelson Banks took the stage and thanked everyone for coming to see the stories that we all grew up with. The long red curtains parted leaving a backdrop of a large egg rolling across the stage stopping at a chair and then a bench and finally a brick wall. Nelson started the story of Humpty Dumpty pausing after each line for the actors to complete the scene. Closing the first act with a big egg falling behind the wall then all sorts of foam pieces fly into the air as an army of soldiers stumbled around trying to fit the pieces back together again. The curtains were drawn together again followed by applause.