The song we sang in Children's Circle:

Create our people:
Pegs light!
Making with light that Brite Brite.
Things can --
things people.
Animals, making glow light,
lots of can light,
bulb of Brite, of Brite.
Lite pretty Brite colorful light. Pegs Brite.

Lots lots make bugs!
Lite with people,
Lite included,
Glow Bunny making Lite Lite --
making making from light light,
sight of that with things Brite.
Lite light.

Brite making with bunny bozo,
Brite that refills Light.

What is Children's Circle? Is that the daycare that had the big Owl logo? I went there.

Ah, Children's Circle. Takes one back, doesn't it? Some of my fondest memories are of those shadowy halls, strewn with leaves and twigs, smelling of peat, getting lost trying to find the loo...

In England, the Children's Circle was run by the Forever Cabal, and Sinestra, the Almond-eyed Mother of the Night, was the head childminder. She staffed it with her pointy-eared minions, the Gobelin. Around issue #23 I believe.

When I was there, Sinestra's sister, Sancia, the Snoozing Senorita from Spain, would come in for story time and of course we all fell asleep like bombs. But oh how we loved Sancia. So still, so perfect, lying in her protective glass coffin. I'm sure she hasn't aged a day.

It was such a beautiful day outside do you know what I did? That's right I went outside and gathered Good Fortune. Just like we used to do in Children's Circle! And then I saw this thread and it was a mighty big coincidence don't you think?

In Children's Circle we decorated baskets and took them with us to gather Good Fortune when it was ripe. Good Fortune has its own seasons it is not just spring or winter it has its own wind and its own schedule. Which is why you need to be ready for it whenever it drops its hat. That is what the Grandmothers taught us at Children's Circle. They taught us to look under rocks and under porches and in mail boxes and on the tops of telephone poles because it can be in unlikely places.

We made our baskets with strips of construction paper and glue and ribbon and they were very beautiful but not very strong and had big holes in them too but it does not matter if you are gathering Good Fortune because Good Fortune is big and light like dandelion parachutes if they were as big as chickens. And you don't even really need to put it in the basket because it sticks to you like pollen in fact maybe we are just the bees that help Good Fortune move around where it needs to go.

So now my pockets and my hair are all fuzzy with Good Fortune and my locker is stuffed full would you like to share it with me here it is.

My favorite memory of Children's Circle was the bird watching. They'd take us to see so many different kinds of birds in that place in the woods - the super tall white egrets, the owls with the humongous eyes, the funny little roly poly ones with the bright colors that tumbled around in the dirt. And all the funny sounds they made. I've never seen birds like that since, or so many in one place. Maybe it's global warming.

"You! No pee on unicorn!"

Sheesh. I don't even know what language these kids speak. Guess I shouldn't have come to the Mythopoeic Zoo on free day, but I suppose it's nice for families to have a place like this to come to. I'm sure some of these kids didn't come with parents though - they're far too young and unruly to be out alone. Roving bands of Lost Children, escaped from their Children's Circle, or bunches of rich Swiss or Austrian kids who obviously paid off their servants for an afternoon lark. There's what seems to be a gang of orphans who slipped through a portal from some garbage heap in Managua - it's them I flip a couple of bucks to buy some popcorn or a coke.

What?!! OMG I had totally forgotten about Children's Circle. How could that have happened? No, really, how could that have happened?

Memories flooding in now though! Like that time we made those giant paintings with maple syrup. And ice sculping! That one teacher got super mad that we mixed the kinetic sand with the invisible flubber. It made me feel weird and ashamed which I don't think was the true mission of Children's Circle. Does anyone remember that?

I totally remember the song now too. Oh wow this is soo cool. Thanks everyone for starting this discussion.

Yours in Egret and Owl secret handsignals! Wink wink! Let's keep the remembering,

Rainbow Tracie

Does anybody know how to get a copy of their Children's Circle graduation certificate? I'm applying for summer internships and some people are asking.

Remember the bubble room?

I don't think we got any kind of certificate, @Nick Gleason. It was hard to bring anything back and forth, except for twigs and feathers stuck in your hair. Did you save any? I did.

I remember the swimming lessons, with the old man swim instructors in bathing caps who taught us to float on our backs, holding us up with their fingertips. I remember staring up at the big fans, water filling my ears, and hearing the roar of the big machines. I always thought those guys were Catholic.