~School Daze~



 For me, September has always meant

When I was young,  we didn't start school until after Labor Day.

You know, me and Fred Flinstone.



But the planning for the big day was all the fun for me.

Notebooks and pens and pencils and crayons

I find myself taking the craziest pictures since I started blogging!

I still love to peruse the school supplies aisle. I've never gotten over my love for pens and papers and all kinds of office gadgets.

And of course when I was younger, the new year also meant a new lunch box

(if you were lucky)



Until you got a little older and became TOO COOL for lunch boxes
and then brown bagging it was the only way to go.

Mr. Wonderful has been known to pack my lunch, and this is usually what I find.  :)

I remember
walking to the bus stop and waiting there with the neighborhood kids.
 Where the boys would inevitably start horsing around and showing off.
And the girls would roll their eyes, but were secretly watching their every move.

A typical class photo. 5th grade.

I am top row second from the left.

Ah, Good times.

Then before you know it you're in the 7th grade

And that is a whole new world.

'The Wonder Years' perfectly captured that era of my life.

I loved that show. Every episode was a walk down memory lane.

Here is Kevin

with the ever present BIG BLUE notebook, that you spent the

entire year writing and drawing on

and covering with stickers and the initials of your secret crush.

Winnie the fashionista.

Those fishnet stockings, were all the rage

( and by some parents, still considered 'scandulous')

I NEVER got to wear a pair.  :(

Most of the girls my age, wore the ubiquitous knee socks.

Of course it was super cool to coordinate your knee socks with your outfit.

But good old WHITE was always acceptable.

Thinking back over those years, memories come flooding in.

I smile, and keep a soft spot in my heart for 

'the girl I was'.

 With all her dreams, big ideas,

insecurities, fumbling, stumbling

and rushing towards adulthood.

And then there you are looking over your shoulder

 as your school days are left behind.

The years have been whisked away, while you weren't looking.  

As I peer through the lens of time I am sending my own son off to school.

I close my eyes, only for a moment, but when I look  again

he is grown.

And sending HIS son off to school.  Sigh.

And I whisper

Happy School Days

Treasure them always.