Day 213: August is here! When I was little, August was one-third of the summer break from school. For June, July, and August, we were free all things school. Now? Now August begins the back-to-school checklist. Our neighborhood elementary school is holding registration today, and by mid-August the kids will be back in their classrooms. I'm all for education, I mean, I work at a university and all, but wouldn't it be nice if August still belonged to summer? The backpacks and school supplies have been in the featured sections of stores for weeks, all the ads are filled with school clothes, and my teacher friends are headed back to work.
Don't get me wrong. I love the new beginnings of a school year. I have a weird love for school supplies. My kids are grown, but I'll still roam the aisles to take in the excitement of bright yellow pencils and boxes of crayons and college-ruled notebooks, but I'll wait until September.
Since I've been quoting grandmothers this week, I'll quote my own mama, who shared my feelings about August. She was lucky to have most of her grandchildren living near her when they were small. They would often wait for the bus in the morning, or get off the bus in the afternoon at Mom and Dad's home and spend time together. My mother LOVED spending time with them. Even though she didn't feel well, she would push past it and offer an adventure. Sometimes it was a picnic under the apple tree. Sometimes it was a walk along the canal to look for watercress, or a walk along the road to look for "paintable" rocks. Sometimes it was flooding the lawn with irrigation water to create the farm version of a splash pad. Sometimes it was baking cookies, or sewing together, or pressing flowers in the pages of a heavy old book. Sometimes it was "letting the mind wander" into a storybook, or building a castle in the sandbox, or touching the sky on the swings.
Mom didn't let August melt into Fall, with its harvest and canning and schoolwork. She felt August belonged to summer, and I do, too.
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