Wednesday, September 11, 2019

How to Enjoy the Back-to-School Season (No Kids Required)

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: September. For those of us in the North, the leaves begin to change, the days shorten, and it's time to begin scheduling all the work we need to do to get ready for winter. In the South, people finally emerge from their air-conditioning and harvest their late season garden. Everywhere, theater groups and symphonies begin their seasons and 15-pound editions of fashion magazines are stuffed with cool weather looks

September is the month of beginnings, of new starts, of changes. (Really, it, not January, ought to be the the New Year.) While a bit of that is due to the shifting weather, that's not really the root - October is far more of a dramatic change from summer throughout the US. No, September has that edge of excitement because for over a century, it has been the beginning of the school year. 

For almost every adult raised in America, September meant a new lunch box, a stack of school supplies, and meeting new kids while you played kickball during recess. It meant new clothes for school, (which might have been bought at Neiman-Marcus or hand-me-downs from your cousin.) It meant that first field trip of the year. Even today, you feel it - that lift you get when you see the first bright yellow schoolbus coming down the street. (You have a different feeling when you're stuck behind the bus.)

So how do we grown-ups, many of whom are not only past our own school days, but past our kid's school days, recapture that delicious sense of novelty and starting again? I'm glad you asked that, Julia, because I have a few suggestions. 




1. Get a lunch box. Really. You know you ought to be taking your lunch to work anyway. It's healthier than take-out and will save you a bundle of money. Go for one of the modern kind, with the flaps and zippers and special compartments for ice packs and resealable boxes. Or, hop on eBay and finally snag the Dating Game lunch box you always wanted but your mother wouldn't buy for you. I guarantee, if you show up with a Six Million Dollar Man or a Monkees lunchbox, you'll hear from coworkers you've never spoken to before.


2. Organize your school supplies. Collect the pencils you have stashed in half a dozen drawers, sharpen them and put them in a can or jar. As my 6th grade teacher said, "A sharp pencil means a sharp mind." You'll feel smarter just looking at all those points. Unearth the crayons and markers you have hiding hither and yon. Smell that marker smell! (But not too much - in school the rumor was it caused brain damage.) If you're feeling ambitious, a school-year planner is just the thing - it begins in August and runs through 18 months, so you can really plan ahead.


3. Go to gym class. Let's face it, if you want to join a gym/fitness center/YMCA, this month is a lot better than January. Do you actually want to slog through some of the worst weather of the year to see yourself, pale as a fish belly, in fluorescent lights? No. No, you don't. Go now, when you drive there with the car window rolled down and you still have a bit of that summer glow.

Health club membership not in the budget? September and October are the best months for walking, hiking, and running outdoors, according to US News and World Report. (Unless you're experiencing a hurricane. Do not hike in a hurricane.) If you're not a fan of nature, there are dozens and dozens of free exercise videos on YouTube, teaching you everything from dance cardio and  martial arts to Yoga and Tai Chi.



4. Get a new school outfit. I don't know about the rest of you, but in my family, unless you outgrew or destroyed something, September was when we kids got all our clothing for the year. My mother was the Queen of bargain-shopping, and I can still remember the thrill of the hunt - finding the perfect pair of jeans or top or sweater marked down by 70 percent!! You don't need to break the bank to get the feeling again - Youngest and I went back-to-school shopping for her and I bought a new pair of sneakers for myself. Now, that doesn't sound like much, but as many of us of a (ahem) certain age find, I simply don't get myself new clothing or shoes very often. (In fact, most of my friends my age are focused on getting rid of excess items in the closet.) So picking up some fun new footwear, for no other reason than I liked it, was a blast.

I have a friend who grew up in very straitened circumstances who never, ever had new clothing for the new school year. Now she's all grown up and makes a comfortable living, she buys herself a complete, head-to-toe new outfit every fall. It's never too late to strut your stuff in front of the other kids.


5. Take a field trip. The Lonely Planet Guide says September is the best month for travel, and it's easy to see why. Everyone who still has kids is staying close to home for school, leaving tourist areas that were jammed in August delightfully free. In many places, September is part of the "rump season," with reduced, off-peak prices. And of course, the weather is pretty wonderful (again, excepting hurricanes.)

Of course, field trips were supposed to be educational. Consider going to one of the local museums or historic houses you never  get to (why leave the best experiences for the tourists?) Get a couple friends together and spend Saturday walking thorough art galleries. (I've done this before, and we all found it incredibly creatively stimulating.) City dwellers can hit up the zoo, take a walking tour, visit the theater or symphony hall (In Portland, several organizations have reduced price tickets for pre-opening night dress rehearsals, which might be more educational than seeing the finished performance.) As an adult, you'll probably get more out of it than you did as a school child - in my case, the gift shop and lunch were always the highlights of any place we visited.

Okay, dear readers, now it's your turn. What are your suggestions for recapturing the excitement of September? And do you have fond memories and good stories to share about your own start-of-school experiences?

58 comments:

  1. Ah, the marvelous memories of back-to-school . . . most of which are of setting up classrooms and welcoming a new group of first-graders. Lots of pencils and a couple of new books for story time were always at the top of the list.

    These days, we still have lots of pencils [in a cup] and it’s double books: some for me and storybooks for the grandbabies . . . and there was a dinosaur-book bag for the Little One heading off to preschool this September. [He cracks me up: “Nana, I’m nervous,” he says. “You’re four,” I say. “There’s nothing for you to be nervous about.” But the little guy is still nervous.]

    And a couple of the kids go back to school in August . . . I’ll never get used to that; it goes against all those September memories . . . .

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    1. I can't wrap my head around school in August, either, Joan. I wonder if it feels quite real until after Labor Day.

      Also, I love your grandson's vocabulary!

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    2. Aw, Joan. What a sweet, thoughtful little boy you have there. He thinks things through!

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    3. I can relate. My almost-3-year-old grandson started preschool yesterday, and my son said he shed a tear thinking of his son going to "school." Henry himself seemed unfazed and was more than ready to join in the fun. And autumn is my favorite season, not just because my 9-month-old granddaughter is named Autumn. I loved back-to-school time!

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    4. The school year has always begun in August for the Colorado grandchildren, Julia, but it never fails to surprise me when they’re getting ready to go back before Labor Day.
      Isaac is definitely a sweetheart, Karen.
      And I'm certain he was a baby just a week or so ago, Margie, so I have absolutely no idea how he could possibly be old enough to be going to preschool . . . .

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  2. Once I get over grieving the shortening days and gradual end of the fresh produce season (and extend it by roasting yet one more batch of tomatoes with olive oil and garlic for sauce), I love fall. Pears. Pears always smelled like back to school for me. And in New England we go apple picking, too.

    September in southern California was the hottest month of the year, but in high school we dutifully still pulled on wool knee socks and wore wool sweaters (albeit short-sleeved ones, and skirts made from half a yard of material) because that was the fashion the rest of the country was wearing!

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    1. Edith, I remember being in southern California one fall, and being deeply amused at seeing women wearing stylish boots and sweaters while the weather was sunny and in the high 70s!

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    3. In central California September and October can be the hottest months. We are expecting over 100 today. The seventy degree temperatures are in November. I never did wear warmer or fall clothing at the beginning of school. Starting in middle school we could wear shorts and were much more comfortable.

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  3. I love this Julia--put it right in that book of essays you'll be publishing... I bet September and back to school was my favorite time of year. I remember one year our mother took us to the Villager Outlet and I got 3 complete outfits. Matching sweaters and skirts that I shortened as soon as I got home--my favorite was canary yellow.

    A sharp pencil=a sharp mind? that's pretty funny!

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    1. Lucy, it's funny how you can remember those specific outfits, isn't it? I recall a fabulous cowl neck sweater back in 1978 that made me feel like a model for SEVENTEEN. Sigh.

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    2. There were only two shops in my small town with clothing for teens, and one of them carried Villager. Remember the Peter Pan collared blouses with tiny flowers?

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    3. Villager! I worked one summer in Receiving at a local department store, so I got to see all the new Villager pieces as they arrived. And yes, I did convince my parents to buy some of them for me. I loved that look. Now we'd say it's too matchy-matchy, I suppose.

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  4. My granddaughter is starting first grade, and I got to go with her shopping for a first-day dress and sequined (of course) headband. Leopard print shoes and pink-and-blue Frozen socks. Shazam!

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    1. I think we may have found the new uniform for the Jungle Reds!

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    2. Hallie, your Franny and my Wren are our future fashionistas, for sure!

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  5. There's excitement associated with back to school? Really? I guess I missed out on that somehow. And my nephew is still too young for school so I don't have to be inundated with pictures of his first day for a few years yet.

    Sorry Julia, but I don't need to recapture anything associated with going back to school. All it meant for me growing up was being forced back into the involuntary servitude of getting up early, dealing with people I didn't like and not having freedom to do whatever I wanted during the course of the day. But if you need a new lunchbox, my local comic shop has a Bob Ross one!

    Well...now that I've established that I'm the dark cloud of doom this morning...bright sunshiney news...Brad Meltzer is going to be doing a signing at An Unlikely Story in Plainville, MA tonight (starts at 6pm) for his new kids books. I checked with the store when I was there for Hank's event and he will sign his other works too so I'm headed up to meet him.

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    1. I've heard Brad Meltzer is a wonderful speaker, Jay. Enjoy yourself!

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  6. I absolutely loved the beginning of September when I was in school! I loved my lunchbox. I loved my satchel. I loved all the supplies I got to put in the satchel. New notebooks. New pencils. New outfits. Except for the time my mother thought she would buy my new clothes at the end-of-the-school-year sales between 7th and 8th grade; I grew three inches over the summer and when it was time to go back to school, nothing fit me anymore!

    But that was when I lived in the northern South! Now I live in the very southern South, where school starts at the beginning of August. Really. Why, you ask? We get none of the excitement of a cool morning or leaves turning any color other than brown. It is incredibly hot in August, and it is NOT a dry heat! (The other night I drove out to the airport to pick up a friend and at 8:30pm it was still 98 degrees!!) Summer here begins after a few days of Spring in February, and Fall comes for a few days in October (hopefully) or November, and then reverts back to Summer again. But, thanks to Julia's post, and recent events, I have just arrived at a theory for the early start of school: September is the peak of hurricane season, and any hurricane (whether real or fake - I live in Alabama...) can result in an unexpected number of days out of school, depending on the severity of damage. So maybe starting in August keeps the school year from lasting into late June to make up missed days. Anyway, that's my theory, and I'm sticking to it. So I guess I'll have to go stock up on some Sharpies to add to my hurricane box!

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    1. That's a good thought, Mary. I wonder if the August temperatures play a part - if it's considered too hot for kids to be outside, why not have them in an air conditioned school?

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    2. That probably is part of the plan, although this year, 2 schools missed the first day because their AC systems were not working! It's always something...

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  7. Going back to First grade and the first day of school, I always think of a red plaid dress! I'm not sure if I even had one or maybe I just wanted one but every time I see a little red plaid dress it reminds me of first grade. If I saw one in a store I'd be tempted to buy it but my teenage granddaughter would not appreciate it at all.
    My first day teaching at a school in NC was different. We had just moved there from NY a couple days before and it was hot, hot, hot. Naturally I put on one of my summer dresses, only to see all the other teachers in their wool jumpers or sweaters. I felt sort of like a freak but I have to admit I was comfortable!

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  8. My parents were both teachers, so the start of school was a big deal in our house. My mother wasn't too fixated on new outfits for us--as the youngest I usually got my sister's hand-me-downs anyway--but we always got new shoes for the school year. Ugly new shoes. To be specific, new saddle shoes, with a brown "saddle" not a black one. I, who would prefer to go barefoot anyway, loathed them with the entirety of my being. I might have liked the black-on-white ones a little better, but Mom refused. Nowadays I understand you can get a rainbow of colors over the white, and that might have been fun but, no. Brown. Always brown.

    I think Julia is right. As I head back to the new concert season--October 15 at the Meyerson if you're in Dallas and love trumpets--maybe I should get myself some new shoes. Do they make the light-up ones for adults?

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    1. Remember white bucks? With red rubber soles? Those were fun keeping clean in a NW Missouri winter. Or Bass Saddle oxfords? Also with red rubber soles. High fashion. Especially with socks rolled down. Heh

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    2. Gigi, I'll bet if you got a pair of black and white saddles now, you would be super retro cool!

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    3. You could look for some of the blinking sneakers in the boys sizes. They seem to have them in larger boy sizes. My daughter and son, twins really liked the flashing sneakers.
      Funny, I tried to get my Mom to buy some saddle shoes for school and she would not because she didn’t like them.

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  10. Great essay, Julia, as always.

    September is always bittersweet for me, living here in the Land of the Five Month Winter. It starting getting cool the first of August, and now our nights are really chilly, low 50s or high 40s even. We got out the down duvets, put the clean covers on, and admired fluffy. The dogs -- and cat -- think this is splendid, not being enough they sleep on a $$$$ mattress all year, but the addition of a $$$ duvet is animal heaven!

    The leaves are starting to change ever so slightly, and I see gold and red and orange peeking through on the dogwoods. The maples are still hanging on to their spring and summer green or burgundy. The oaks here just hang on, sporting ugly brown leaves all winter. What's that about?

    I haven't bought a lunch box nor a crayon in decades although my youngest grandson started to first grade a week or so ago. I wish I'd been there. He's definitely the last of the litter, but he got new clothes just like his brothers. So funny to see all those spindly boy legs in sneakers the size of South Dakota.

    Just checked the weather and 83 is forecast for today. So please ignore all the above. One last blast of summer is happening around me, and I have to go put on shorts one more time.

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    1. Ann, same thing here, right down to the duvets: my cat slept on my bed a few nights ago when it went down to 48 degrees. First time in months! How do people in hot climates get their cats to love them?

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    2. They feed them Fancy Feast. AKA cat crack

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  11. Gigi, for at least eleven years, I had a uniform for school with the awful brown shoes. After those years, I never wore brown shoes again in my life

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    1. Danielle, my oldest daughter wore plaid jumpers (pinafores) or skirts for 12 years in school. Sin she graduated, I haven't seen her in plaid anything. Pretty sure she has a no-tartan policy.

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  12. College shopping! Before I left for college, one of Mom's friends gave her a list: a stuffed animal for my dorm bed, skirts and sweaters for class, dresses for sorority events, wool slacks for a college football game. I took five pairs of jeans, my HS sweaters, and a ski jacket. And my HS graduation gift, a Smith-Corona typewriter. No stuffed animal, though I acquired a houseplant.

    We always take a major trip in the Fall, when the weather is cooler and maybe the crowds will be smaller.

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    1. My mother was so disappointed that I wasn't going to get sweater sets to take to college and that the university I attended didn't even have sororities (on purpose). I was more into thrift store jeans and home-sewn and -embroidered muslin blouses.

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    2. I was the one who thought college was going to look like a 1957 edition of Glamour magazine, Margaret, although to be fair, the preppy look had been big at my high school. My mother wisely advised me to wait until I had been on campus for a while before getting anything new. Thank goodness I did, because while lots of sporty girls from downstate dressed that way, it was widely scorned by the Theatre Department, which is where I was. We were all about vintage, punk, and overalls.

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  13. I'm with you, Julia! Since I teach college, September feels more like New Year than January. I usually don't do much to celebrate, unless I hit the consignment shop (or my favorite online stores) for some new shirts. It's challenging to find work AND weather appropriate clothes for September!

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    1. I am all about the layers this time of year, Cathy. I have been known to wear a shirt, a cardigan buttoned over it and a cardigan open over THAT. Then I spend the rest of the day taking them off or putting them on.

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  14. I just took my field trip, Julia. I was speaking in DC and went to the Spy Museum and was given a tour of the Washington Post. Both terrific. Growing up in England it was uniforms and lunch in the school dining hall so I never had the thrill of a new lunch box, but my kids did.

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    1. Rhys, how do you get a tour of the Washington Post? Do you have to know someone?

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  15. Julia, wonderful tips! I remember travelling to Europe in September. It is the best month to travel, though I missed the Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen (Kobenhavn) because it was not open when I was there. LOL.

    Although I remember the lunch boxes for school, unfortunately, when I was a day student at boarding school, I was not allowed to bring school lunches.

    I remember shopping for clothes just before school started. As I got older, it was difficult because the clothes seemed to be designed for tiny people. By the time I was ten, I was taller than five feet and luckily, I could start wearing junior sized clothes, which were designed for women. Alas, by the time I was 14, I was in trouble! I was too curvy and the clothes were not designed for my body type!

    In some parts of the USA, I think school started earlier in August, right?

    Diana

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    1. Diana, in the south and west, schools start early. Jenn's Hooligans have been heading off in early August the past several years. That wasn't always the case; I spent a couple years of elementary school in Alabama, and we didn't begin until after Labor Day.

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  16. I miss school shopping. After 35 years of raising daughters I never thought I'd say that, but I'm finally far enough away from the drama that I can. I still feel compelled to wander Staples at this time of year.

    My oldest daughter says shopping with the teenaged grandson is very easy, but awfully dull. Boys' clothing has never been especially exciting, and then combine that with a super laidback kid who knows whatever they buy won't fit him in two weeks anyway. He's grown about six inches this year. Don't get too attached to that look!

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  17. Julia, you didn't mention gardening, but September is the best time to plant bulbs and perennials for next spring. I'm doing that now, in fact. And the crisp, blue-sky days with brilliantly colored foliage are my favorites.

    My birthday is in the first week of October, and I always got gypped. School clothes were invariably the biggest part of my "presents".

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  18. I still feel that the start of the school year is the real beginning of each year. I honestly don't remember getting new clothes, but school supplies? Yes! I usually brought my lunch. I had a plain red metal lunch box with thermos. My brother had a blue one. After a year or two we graduated to brown bags. I really looked forward to the first day of school. Which of my friends were in my class? Who was new to me? Please lord don't let me have the gorgon for my teacher. (Got her in 4th grade).September in Houston is still summer, but thanks to Dick and Jane I had this picture in my mind of sweaters and knee socks and leaves turning colors. Fortunately our parents didn't buy into that and we were dressed for the weather.

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  19. New notebooks! LOVE and still feel as if I should be buying them. My first day of school in the sixth grade, a VERY big deal, I heard a weird noise in my closet as I was getting dressed, all nervous, and turned out my cat had her kittens! IN the closet! Ahhh.
    Plus I got toothpaste on my new red sweater. OH nooooo. I remember that tragedy so perfectly...

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  20. Great piece, Julia! When I was a kid, school didn't start until after Labor Day, so there was at least a promise of fall in the air. My mom took me to Neiman Marcus in downtown Dallas to shop for those wool skirts and matching cardigans, hoping I'd be able to wear them by the time the state fair rolled around in October! Northpark Center opened the year I turned thirteen, bringing new school shopping options. There was a shop called The Carriage House that stocked very British wool tartans--I remember being thrilled with a red and blue tartan skirt and matching red wool cardigan. But school supplies were even more fun. I loved the new notebooks, pencils, and pens--nice thing about being a writer is that they are now tax deductible! And I totally agree that the new year should start in September, not January!

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  21. I'm with you that the start of the year should be September, Julia. As the oldest, I got the new clothes (not that my sister, eight years younger, got a lot of my hand-me-downs). I remember getting the JC Penney catalog, yearning for the Jordache or the Calvin Klein, but ending up with the Penney's brand (hey, four kids).

    I have one last year of "back to school." The Boy is in his senior year of high school. I'm torn between nostalgia and relief that I won't have to battle the "back to school" supply crowds.

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  22. When is that book of essays coming out, Julia? :-) A visit to Staples any time of the year still makes me think of back-to-school and I itch to load up on pencils and paper and other cool stuff....

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  23. Until I was 12, there were often delays in the opening of school because of the polio epidemics. (That's factoring into a novel I'm writing... more when it is closer to being finished.) By the time the Salk vaccine allowed us to play with children not in our "herd," I was already in junior high and very serious about my studies. (If you look up "nerd" in the dictionary, I think there's a picture of me, briefcase in one hand, cello in the other. We didn't have school buses-- we rode the city buses with all the crowds commuting to their factory jobs. It wasn't pretty.)

    What DID happen in September was the High Holy Days, often early in the month with temperatures in the eighties, and all of us in our new wool clothing. No white after Labor day-- and no cotton! The synagogue wasn't air conditioned in those days; nothing was except a few movie theaters. I have memories of wilting in the heat. And the smell of mothballs because all the parents got their winter clothes out of summer storage. (Again, not pretty. And so not my favorite season.)

    I remember the first year I declared independence from the September rules. We had had a glorious hot Labor Day weekend, which I spent out at our family cottage. I got up that Tuesday morning, with the sun blazing on the still-warm waters of the lake, and I thought, "I don't want to go into the city to work." And then I realized that, having just started my private law practice, I had no clients, and so no reason to go into the office. My answering service would pick up calls if any came in. I had no kids, so I didn't have to get anybody ready for school. I put on my swim suit and dove into the lake, and spent the day floating around on an inflatable raft. I didn't come back to the city until Wednesday afternoon. Some rules are made to be broken!

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  24. Oh, how I loved going back to school when I was growing up. All of what you've mentioned, Julia, with the new notebooks and pencils and books and outfits. And, the weather started cooling down, and then the variegated leaves. It was magical. New beginnings over and over again. I have this memory, not a major event, not an earth-shattering moment, but a memory in time with my sister Jerrye Jo of school starting back. I was a teenager, but not yet driving, so my sister was driving, and we were driving down the street in the fall when school had started back. I remember feeling so elated in that moment, feeling that it just didn't get any better than it was right then. My sister died last Christmas, and I treasure this moment we had, together in her Mustang, riding down the street with the world ahead of us in its infinite shining possibilities.

    I wasn't quite as enthusiastic when my kids would start back to school, although I didn't let it show, because I was one of those parents who loved my children being home. But, they were always ready to go back and see their friends and start activities. My ten-year-old granddaughter is on cloud nine when school starts back. She reminds me a bit of myself, which is probably just me getting older and more sentimental, but we do share a lot of the same joys.

    I have to confess that I adore fall so much that I already have put out much of my Halloween decorations and will finish up today. School starting, leaves changing colors, and Halloween! My happy time for sure.

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  25. When I was going to school, I didn't think that I liked it but was bored enough by the end of the summer to be glad to go back. What I look forward to now is the start of the TV season, which used to start closer to the beginning of September. Now we have to wait until the 23rd.

    I do enjoy the leaves turning but am sad to see the garden finish. At least a few plants keep flowering or looking good throughout the fall.

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  26. How fabulous! I love school supplies, field trips, and new outfits. I think I'll treat myself!

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  27. My sister got me a lunch box for Christmas 2017. It was a duplicate of the plaid one we had as kids, even has the matching thermos, though it doesn't for inside the lunch box like ours did. I've taken it to work a couple times but if they find me, lunch gets interrupted so I still prefer to go away for lunch. School clothes were made my grandma and Mom for my sister and me, our brother got store bought clothes. Our dresses matched, the colors were different but the fabric matched. Our before school shopping trips was to the the fabric stores and the shoe store. It wasn't until I was in junior high that I got to have less home made and more store bought clothes. Girls weren't allowed to wear pants until I was in 8th grade in our school districts.

    Until I started at Chico, school started after Labor Day, now it all starts in August and the school year ends Memorial Day weekend. Can you imagine graduations and a three day weekend all at the same time?

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  28. September does feel more like a beginning than January, even as a retired teacher, and even with this blasphemy of starting school in August, and even with 100 degree weather today. Notebooks, pens, schedules . . . My first year teaching, I was hired just a few days before school started. Students kept asking if I was Ms. Staff because their schedules said "STAFF" in the teacher column. We managed. Now, my schedule is mine to make, but I do sometimes miss the wit of those creative students. <3

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