Back to School!

Back in the days of employment you could always tell it was the first day back at school.  By 7:30, Lakeland Drive would be backed up from the Pearl River Bridge, all the way to Northwest Rankin Middle School.  These days I don't go near Lakeland Drive til after 8:30!

The weeks leading up to "first day" included finding a copy of the "school supply list" and heading off to the stores like it was a treasure hunt.  Then, Walmart and others caught on and had the lists waiting for you as you entered the store.  Others, like Kroger, would have them pre-packaged for you  as an enticement to buy the supplies from them.

For us, part of our summer ritual was looking for just the right backpack.  It was totally taboo to use one two years in a row!  Along came the block scheduling, kinda like the college thing, and suddenly it became smart to have two!  As you would head out the door to drop off your kids at school, it would hit you, "ok, is this A day or B day"?

In the early years lunches were easy.  "I wanta buy my lunch" was the most common choice of the day.  One year, in elementary school Morgan announced that he wanted to take his lunch.  He liked the food, but because his last name was Weems, he was always the guy at the end of the line, but if you brought your lunch, you were the first to enter the cafeteria.  Then, the fryers were removed from the cafeterias  and all you heard was "Ain't  buying, the food is yucky! "  Oscar Mayer lunchables became the food choice of the day.    Once my boys were able to drive themselves to school, they quickly learned to skip lunch and head to a fast food joint after school with their friends.   Don't try to order a slushie  from Sonic between 2 and 4, no spaces and the machine will already be sucked dry on those early hot school days of August!

Nowadays  all you have to do is open up Facebook to see the pictures the Mom's are taking of their kids before they head off on the first day back.  Some mom's of older kids do a posting of TBT'S of their kids in younger days.

This is the final year for my youngest, now a senior at Mississippi State.  No more school supply shopping for us.  Morgan now buys the e-version of most of his text books.  No more notebook paper, since he records all of his notes electronically.   And, he still stays away from the everyday cafeteria food
  Thank God for Student Union food courts!

Good luck to all my friends with kids and grands now heading back to school.  And, Best of luck with that "new math" called "common core"!