The Things I Miss August 28th 2024

 I have nine grand children.  All of them in some form of school and all of them starting the next school year between yesterday and Tuesday.  I have two children who are teachers and they are also back in school.   The very idea of school brings a couple of things to mind.  Firstly,  I am a sucker for nostalgia.  I don't mean to get lost in the past,  but I do love the feelings the recall of certain things give me.  Secondly, August and September are my favourite months.  

I have always enjoyed the warm days and cool evenings that come to this part of my home and native land in those two months.  I love the colours.  In August the crops are ready to reap.  They turn to golden and they wave with the winds.  In September, the leaves turn.   The leaves are mostly yellow in these parts but some local flora such as the Mountain Ash turn a beautiful Auburn/reddish colour.  A goodly amount of the lower brushes are scarlet.  This close to the mountains, by mid August the morning air is brisk.   It is refreshing to the nose and lungs to breath in air with a crispness that seems to instantly clear the head.  

I have never hid the fact that I hated school for a variety of reasons.  Between first and second grade, I remember my mom showing me the August calendar and that I was going back to school in two weeks.  I remember crying my eyes out.   But there were a couple things about school...... The excitement of seeing who was going to be in your class.  You always hoped you would have your best buddies in your class.  But more so,  you hoped your crush would be in the desk right in front of you.  Never happened.  So you found a new crush.   

 Mom always got us a new school outfit.  You were excited to put on brand new clothes. Now my mom was no different than most moms.  I got a new outfit for school from the Bay basement or the Army and Navy.  I didn't much care.  I felt handsome in my flannel shirt, cotton pants with the elastic waist line, and new white ankle Dash runners.  But one year,  I think it was grade six, I got a golden collarless sweater  Yellow-golden shirt,  black jean style slacks, and.....wait for it......POINTED TOED SHOES!  I don't know if I ever again was so thrilled with clothing.

I never minded the first day of school.  It usually only lasted till noon. The new teachers would introduce themselves, you would visit with all the other kids and look over the newbies. ( My home town was very transient and there were always newbies.) 

 I don't know what it was like to be a newbie.  The cool kids, the ones who's parents bought them the latest styles and always had everything on the school list including the 24 pack of pencil crayons rather than the eight basic wax ones had their own clique.  They were only interested in newbies of the opposite sex who were extremely attractive by elementary standards.  But there were those of us regulars who were always a little anxious for some new blood.  Newbies would eventually find their own place with their own people. 

So if you started todays therapy session by reading the title I would guess that my eventual point would be that I missed those things.  And of course you would be right.   I am not sure exactly what I miss.  It may simply be the innocence of my youth.  It may be that I remember fall being warm, colourful, social, and hopeful in a new beginning.  One where I would fill those new white clean scribbler pages with notes and accumulated knowledge.  Where I would find a new crush who found me irresistible.  Where I would meet new people in our town who wouldn't have already formed an opinion about my quirky ADHD behaviours.  

I am pretty sure I don't miss school.  I am pretty sure I don't miss being a tween or younger.   But there is something about that time in my life I do miss.  There were few insecurities in my life.  My parents provided for me and protected me.  I never knew what adult worries were.   There were routines.  Friday night late night shopping, Saturday matinees, The swimming pool in the summer.  the skating rink in the winter.  And the year didn't start in January,  but rather September.   

I don't know what it is like to be a kid these days.  Everything is different.  More accessible, more electronic and less social..... But the beginning of September,  I imagine many of those things I miss would be the same feelings kids have today.   I sure hope so.