School Days

 

School Days

 

August signals summer is almost over and fall is fast approaching. When I was a kid it meant the school was dead ahead. The lazy days of summer with little demand on my time were to come to an end. The discipline of learning was about to consume my life.

 

Back then there was a ritual leading up to the first day of school. First there was getting school clothes. Those years I attended parochial school, new uniforms had to be purchased: corduroy pants and button down shirts. No jeans or shorts allowed. Then came a new pair of shoes purchased at Nelson’s shoe store. No tennis shoes allowed. Just the right attire for those hot fall days in a classroom with windows that didn’t open and no air conditioning. My one free choice was a new lunch box. I always chose one with Gene Autry or Roy Rogers on it.

 

It was time to brush up on excuses that I would need to miss school. These were designed around the seasons. Not feeling well would work once or twice during the fall. Flu symptoms (headache and fake vomiting) worked for a couple of winter days. Hay fever with runny nose and sneezing did it for a spring day. I had to work  hard at this since my dad was a doctor and not easy to fool. Then there were those God given snow days when it was below zero and a blizzard.

 

If only I had grown up in a pandemic where you didn’t have to make up excuses. The decision to stay home is made by the school. The fear of virus exposure outweighs learning in a classroom petri dish of germs. My mother would not have survived homeschooling eight children. Come to think of it, I don’t think we would have survived.

 

These words from an old song keep running through my head. Let me share them with you in closing: “School days, school days. Dear old Golden Rule days. Reading and writing and arithmetic taught to the tune of a hickory stick….”

 

No need to dress up for school anymore. You can learn everything on your tablet lying in bed.