Day 166 - the end of the school year

 Today is the 5th day of the 24th week, the 15th day of the 6th month, the 166th day of 2023, and:

• Fly a Kite Day
• Global Wind Day
• Justice for Janitors Day
• LGBTQIA+ Equal Pay Awareness Day
• Magna Carta Day
• National Career Nurse Assistants' Day
• National Day of Prayer for Law Enforcement Officers
• National Dump the Pump Day
• National Electricity Day
• National Foam Party Day
• National Kiss a Wookie Day
• National Lobster Day
• National Megalodon Day
• National Smile Power Day
• Native American Citizenship Day
• Nature Photography Day
• Prune Day
• Recess at Work Day
• World Elder Abuse Awareness Day
• World Tapas Day
• Worldwide Day of Giving

Quote of the day:
"Childhood is a short season."

~ Helen Hayes, American Actress [the first woman to win a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony Award]

Today is the last day of school in one district; tomorrow is a half day and the last day in an adjoining one.  Kids who have been counting down the days until summer vacation are now counting down hours - something that hasn't changed since my school days.

So much has!

For one thing?  I walked to school every day, and it wasn't a short little walk either as I lived on the periphery of the 'walkers' area - everyone within a mile of the school as the crow flies was a walker.  [and no, it was not uphill both ways, the terrain was very flat as a matter of fact] In elementary school we hauled book bags, by junior high school no one would be caught dead with a book bag so we cradled our notebook and balanced our books in our arms - which was really fun when you had to use an umbrella!  

In retrospect it was a pretty dumb thing to do - today's backpacks are much more practical.  But I am bemused by the number of kids today who neither walk to school nor the bus stop without parental supervision.

But why were summers so important to us?  It's not like our family, or most of the families around us, had big vacation plans - I grew up in a blue collar east Baltimore suburb and while someone might go to Girl or Boy Scout camp or get a week [or more likely a day trip] in Ocean City, summer didn't mean going anywhere or doing anything special.  I do remember the long hot days ....  

What did I do?  

Well, I I remember reading.  Apparently I read too much because my mother limited me to one book a day because she wanted me to go outside.  I walked to the library constantly because there was a limit to the number of books I could carry and that the librarian would let me take out.  I'm not sure she was convinced I was actually reading everything I took.

I remember playing in my room.  My room was MINE - I was even allowed to close the door and shut my parents out!  Couldn't put anything on the walls, though.  It was a small rectangular room with a window on one end, and the closet at the other - and you couldn't open the closet door without closing the room door.  It held a bed, nightstand, desk, chest of drawers, and a tiny bookcase with my record player on top.  There were two scatter rugs on the hardwood floor.  On the windowsill?  Every summer I would get a banana split from Twin Kiss, and wash out the little boat it came in, and take it over to Grandmom Riley's.  There I would fill it with dirt from her garden and she would pull up Mexican roses that kept popping up in the dirt driveway and let me plant them.  It would sit outside on the ledge, and those flowers would bloom and bloom all summer.  I would crumble up the throw rugs, making different scenery, pull out my collection of  little plastic horses, and tell stories [complete with sound effects of course].  Each one of those little figures had names and a back story and personalities.  I wasn't much into dolls.  My mother loved to sew and she made lots of doll clothes.  I would dress the three [one large one and two little ones] in matching outfits which I changed fairly frequently, but altho the dolls also had names, histories, and personalities, they didn't go on many adventures.  

I remember riding my bike.  I had an English racer and I really liked that bike.  I would ride it around and around Oak Grove - I wasn't supposed to go out of the neighborhood.  After the race course was demolished and they built a road across Martin BLVD, I used to sneak over there and ride in glorious isolation knowing full well my mother would have a fit if she knew.  

By the end of 2 1/2 months, I was heartily bored and ready to go back to school.  But every single year, by the end of the school year, I was pining for summer vacation just like everyone else.

Of course, after I turned 15, I worked during the summers because I needed to save money for college, but I still looked forward to it.  

It really doesn't seem all that long ago....