BACK TO SCHOOL!

Summer is gone. 

A walk outside no longer assaults you with a blast of suffocating heat, nor with humidity so thick you could cut it with a knife. The mosquitos are at least manageable. The electric bill will be going down soon - no doubt! The streets are no longer full of children at play, riding bikes up and down the street. 

The calendar says it's still summer, but it isn't really. Children everywhere have gone back to school.

•  Summer was always my favorite time of year! 

I was free to do whatever I wanted - even if that meant spending time alone, high atop a pear tree, swaying with the wind, just enjoying the day.

The Summer days flew by unnoticed, but all too quickly, all blurring into one lazy, never-ending childhood memory.

Then, as the air grew less hot and humid, and the last of the cicadas sang their buzzing songs from up in the trees, I would realize that this summer, too, shall pass, and soon.

If the changing climate was not sufficient to warn the young child that summer days would soon be over, just about everywhere the warning showed up — in writing!

A walk through any store showed signs boldly proclaiming:"BACK TO SCHOOL!!" - as if to shout out loudly to all concerned, that the presence of little ones around the house would no longer be tolerated.

"I know it's time to go back to school," I told my Mom one day as we passed that annoying sign,

"But they don't have to rub it in!"

That's a ten-year-old kid, all right!

School did begin, soon enough, and the pleasure of seeing classmates once again, and the love of learning also began to take hold.

Excitement was in the air and happiness reigned.

Whatever joy and enthusiasm there was on the first day was quickly stifled by the so-called institution of learning that we call "school", all too quickly transforming that love of learning into a chore. Teachers' smiles turned into strict scowls, and homework piled up - rudely intruding into what little free time was left after school was out. Reality had, at last, set in. 

School work was WORK.

I would often spend a minute or two off by myself at recess, enjoying the cool breeze, listening to the mocking birds sing from the crêpe-myrtles —fondly remembering the summer just past, and dreaming of the summer to come.

Then some kid would come up and call me - it was time to play a game or two - and then, sadly, and all too quickly, playtime ended, all became quiet in the schoolyard, and the teachers would call us back to class.

12 Sept., 2017 Houston 11:10am