Martha Schultz and Julie Cologne enjoyed having a little time away from their husbands and kids, even if it meant hunkering down in a parking lot at four in the morning. The dashboard of Schultz’s Audi station wagon said it was twenty-seven degrees, which must have been the interior temperature, because outside the Edina Community Center, it was certainly colder. That didn’t stop people from gathering at the building one night last February. By five a.m., more than fifty cars had pulled up.
Early Childhood Family Education (ECFE) programs foster child development and parenting skills for pre-kindergarten-age kids and their caregivers. In most cities, parents mail in registration forms, but Edina does it differently. An entire year of ECFE classes gets filled on one winter morning, on a first-come, first-served basis. Last year, Edina’s most “extreme” parent, a guy who wished to be identified only as “Sean F,” got in line at 9:15 p.m. the night before registration began. After several hours alone in a sleeping bag on a large concrete landing, he was surrounded by collapsible camp chairs. Among a circle of fathers passing the time, Tim Savik stood out with his duck boots, snow pants, and a fur hat that extended his six-foot-four frame several inches. Kari Lervick arrived at 4:30 a.m., two hours earlier than she ever had before. In 2002, she had an infant at home and couldn’t leave for the night. So her nanny did the waiting. “I paid her to do it,” Lervick said.
Despite the jockeying, this was hardly a Who concert. Many parents documented their arrival in a spiral notebook to establish a putative line order and then retreated to heated vehicles. One minivan with its doors swung open would have fit right in at a Vikings tailgating party. Half-empty snack bags littered the interior, where occupants laughed and shared hot cocoa. Mary Sackett, a mother of three who has signed up for ECFE a dozen times, declared this wait her most fun yet. Sackett works afternoons as a nurse, so it’s important that she get into morning ECFE sessions.
The Edina registration isn’t too daunting for parents who braved similar circumstances in their younger days. Compared to the folks Ruggs Cote recalls seeing when he waited for Pink Floyd tickets, the ECFE crowd is “a lot safer” and “a lot more social,” he said. Refreshments are different too. Six-packs here were mostly bottled water. Of course, “you never know what’s in the hot chocolate,” Sackett joked.
At five a.m., the ruly mob was allowed inside. Parents claimed available folding chairs or sat on the tile floor, their backs up against metal lockers. The hallway was illuminated only by the occasional glow of a book light or PalmPilot. Some people pulled out card games, others knitting and cross-stitch projects. There was a bucket of popcorn. The floor was a minefield of brushed-steel coffee mugs in every conceivable shape.
The annual overnight wait isn’t officially sanctioned by the community education office that provides the ECFE program. “We pooh-pooh it publicly,” admitted operations manager Kim Salisbury. Nevertheless, coffee and cookies were available inside, and a table was set up to sell paperbacks of Clifford the Big Red Dog and Captain Underpants.
Finally, registration began in earnest at 8:30 a.m. Naturally, Sean F got the classes he’d hoped for. But Andy Olsen, just seventeenth in the queue, had to settle for his second choice. Dennis Knoer came prepared for several scenarios. His wife had sent along a detailed plan including first, second, and third priorities for each of their two kids. Knoer was happy-hour hopping the night before, so he “wasn’t real keen on getting out of bed,” he admitted. “But you do what you have to do, right?”
Cologne and Schultz, at numbers 37 and 38, both got what they came for: a class with a popular teacher named Lisa. Before departing, Schultz fielded a cell-phone call from her husband, who needed instructions on how to make scrambled eggs. Perhaps there is a class for that.
Participants insist Edina’s ECFE program is worth the wait. Weekly sessions offer parents insights into important issues like potty training, moving to a big-kid bed, and sibling rivalry. Meanwhile, Lervick noted, children get accustomed to the structure and social systems that await them in later life. “They learn how to share,” she said. “They learn how to clean up. They learn how to stand in line.”
—Scott A. Briggs
Leave a Reply