“You can drag my body to school but my spirit refuses to go.”
The morning is chilly, drab and damp. I’m wearing a sweatshirt and thinking about socks as my feet are cold. I should have known the weather would turn as soon as I took the comforter off my bed. This weather will be hanging around through the weekend so I might as well pull out the comforter and put it back on the bed. I had such high hopes when I stored it. Yesterday I got outside as far as the deck. I made my bed, my sole accomplishment of the day, and went through cooking magazines and cut out recipes. I also browsed catalogues and dog-eared a few pages which had items I’d like to buy. It was a good day.
When I was a kid, around this time in June, we’d have final exams then we’d spend the next few days cleaning out our desks and packing away the classroom. It was always the best time of the year. We could chat all we wanted, and we did no schoolwork. Learning had ended. Our last day of school was always a half day. It was the day we got our report cards. The nun would call us to her desk one by one. None of us looked at the cards until we got back to our desks where we always looked on the back first. The bottom of the back was where it said Promoted To. We didn’t care about grades or deportment. We just wanted the next number in succession. I remember running home that last day with a few papers and my report card in hand. I’d yell to my mother I got promoted. That always seemed the most important part.
My sister who is five years younger than I wasn’t all that keen on being in school. She’d ask to go to the bathroom or the cloak room then go straight out the door and walk home. My other sister, too young for school, would tell my mother, “Sheila’s coming up the hill.” My mother couldn’t drive in those days so she walked Sheila back to school with my youngest sister in tow. The next time it happened I got sent to get her. I never minded. It meant I could leave school, take a casual walk home then walk back to school with Sheila. The nuns figured out the answer to Sheila’s escapes: they sent a guard with her whenever she left the room. That put an end to her walks home and my freedom even if was a little while.
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June 7, 2013 at 11:09 am
This would have been the last day of school here when I was a kid, now days it’s a bit earlier for the older kids and I think a bit later for the younger. But they’ll all have ten weeks free from school. I loved school but still I loved summer holidays even more 🙂
Really cold here this morning with some fog too and it didn’t become warm until late in the day. I wore a sweater when taking the first and latest walk. In the morning because it was cold and the latest because of the mosquitoes 🙂 They say we’ll get showers in bewteen tomorrow but the chance of sunshine is big anyway.
I don’t mind because then my new water barrel will be filled and both the gold fish’s and koi’s can move out to that instead of being in the aquarium until I do something with my empty pond.
Have a great day!
Christer.
June 7, 2013 at 12:02 pm
Christer,
It would be close to my last day. We always got out earlier than the public school. The school around here have about 2 weeks left.
I love fog. This time of year a warm morning means fog over the river. I’m amazed the mosquitos don’t mind the cold. They won’t be around here until it gets warmer. We’ll have rain today.
I wish it were warmer.
June 7, 2013 at 11:52 am
Hi Kat,
I can still smell the last days of school before summer vacation. I can’t exactly describe it but it was a combination of crayons, dust, grass, sun-warmed wood and other things. It definitely had a smell.
Your sister never learned that when you skip out of school you’re not supposed to go home? It’s too easy to find you there. 🙂
I did nothing yesterday, too. Well, I threw out most of the stuff in my refrigerator in anticipation of the new one arriving sometime in the next week or so. I had 3 bags of trash this week instead of the normal one and most of that was stuff from the fridge. There were a lot of mystery jars in there. 🙂 Now there is only coffee beans, some cheese, a diet Pepsi and bacon.
It’s raining and cool up here as well. The winter stuff isn’t packed away yet. That was one of the things I was going to do this week. Glad I didn’t. It was cold last night.
Enjoy the rest of the day.
June 7, 2013 at 12:08 pm
Hi Caryn,
I remember the sounds more than the smells. It was kids talking and laughing and feet shuffling across the floor carrying books. I remember the windows were open.
She was only in the first grade so home is where she needed to go so she could play with my other sister.
I am just sitting around until I have to go to Hyannis. The day doesn’t invite anything else.
I’ve got the comforter back on the bed!!
June 7, 2013 at 12:13 pm
I can understand your sister, depending on the teacher school was often a waste of time. Too bad we didn’t have internet back than, because usually learning is fun, but not boring lessons with dumb questions. I regret that I didn’t dare to leave school when I was young.
Still summer weather, too hot for a sweater. Back into the garden…
June 7, 2013 at 12:16 pm
Birgit,
It was a nun, but I don’t remember which one. After she got a guard, her escapes ended. Too bad as I liked the break.
Not summer here anymore!
June 7, 2013 at 3:32 pm
How Millennial Are You?
Pew Research Center – a nonpartisan fact tank – has a quiz that tells you how Millennial you are on a scale from 0 to 100, by comparing your answers with those of respondents to a scientific survey. You can also find out how you stack up against others your age.
Don’t expect the result to be accurate though. I took the Millennial quiz and my score was 80, suggesting I was born in the 1980s. But I’m not. I’m a Baby Boomer. Which can only mean one thing: I’m young at heart.
Link to the quiz—>> http://www.pewresearch.org/quiz/how-millennial-are-you/
June 7, 2013 at 4:46 pm
Morpfy,
My score was 28 which tilted me toward Gen Xer but still in the baby boomer years which I am.
June 7, 2013 at 6:07 pm
Millennial score 25. I feel old now…
… but “Tremors” is once more on TV, past midnight (that means now!) so I’m probably younger soon 🙂
June 8, 2013 at 9:52 am
Birgit,
That is such a great movie. I haven’t seen it in ages. I’ll have to keep an eye out on the TV listings.
Perhaps you just have an old soul!
June 8, 2013 at 1:35 am
Yikes. I scored a 42, so I’m unofficially a Gen Xer — even though I was born during the first year of the Baby Boomers. I don’t even know what to think of such results. I agree with Morpfy, I must be young at heart (but only HALF as young at heart as Morpfy!).
June 8, 2013 at 9:54 am
im6,
You are young at heart and I am a Baby Boomer in mind if not spirit.
Yesterday I had an MRI and I chose the 60’s and 70’s station to listen to ( being true to my Boomer music roots), but the gods were not with me. It was a tribute to Queen.
June 7, 2013 at 4:24 pm
Hi Kat,
Our weather up here in Toronto often seems to mirror yours in Cape Cod. It’s cool and very damp today – the perfect excuse to not go grocery shopping after all, but to stay home reconstructing my blog.
I was surprised that I’d never heard that particular Gary Lewis song. He must have taken a lot of flak for being the son of Jerry Lewis and, at least on his first big hit ‘This Diamond Ring’, none of the band members were allowed to play their instruments on it and Gary’s vocals were enhanced by another singer’s overdubs.
I’d love to see a photo of the charming (and mischievous) Gracie one of these days. 😉
Marie
June 7, 2013 at 4:54 pm
Hi Marie,
It has now been raining all afternoon. I finally put socks on as my feet were so cold. I even closed the windows.
This was one of their big songs and it even reached number 2 on the charts. I looked up the group and was shocked to find Lewis had eight gold singles, seventeen Top 40 hits (but only fifteen Hot 100 entries, and four gold albums. I would never have guessed that.
You can see the lovely Miss Gracie if you go to my other blog: Here and About:
http://hereandabout.wordpress.com
Enjoy the pictures!
June 7, 2013 at 6:54 pm
Kat, Thanks for the link to your photo blog. You have some beautiful pics. What breed of dog is Miss Gracie?
June 7, 2013 at 7:56 pm
Bob,
Gracie is a boxer, a brindle boxer and a very dark one. I’m so glad you enjoyed the pics!!
June 7, 2013 at 5:26 pm
Thanks, Kat. Your pictures are beautiful and Miss Gracie is even more lovely and mischievous looking than the image of her that I had in my mind’s eye – look at what she’s done to that ball! What a scamp!
In 1965, I had my ear glued to my radio and don’t know how I managed to miss hearing this song. I checked my CHUM Chart Book and it even reached #9 here.
Well, there are about 10 days to go before I find out if my entire account will be deleted or not, but I decided to nuke that particular blog address myself. (I’m having a scary senior’s moment and can’t quite get hold of the precise word that’s dangling off the tip of my tongue . . . ah-h-h, there it is – I took “pre-emptive” action.
Marie
June 7, 2013 at 8:00 pm
Marie,
She is a scamp, no denying that. She talks back to me all the time. She obeys but with long, loud complaints.
This was a big song for them. I even remembered the words!
You chose the perfect word! I think you need to relax a bit. If they delete it, you get to start again. That was what got me through the deletion.
June 7, 2013 at 7:02 pm
The public school year in Dallas in the 1950s always ended on Memorial Day weekend. The schools were not air conditioned and the class rooms would become unbearable even with the addition of large fans at the back of the rooms. Having the windows open in April and May made concentrating on school work very difficult. I couldn’t wait for the summer vacation to begin as early as October. Although my parents threatened me with being left back to get me to do homework, the school district had a policy of social promotion. They didn’t want to have a kid repeat a grade because they would only have a bored kid in the same grade again next year. Kids were just passed along with the hope that they would either get the work through osmosis or excel in football so that they could get an college athletic scholarship.
June 7, 2013 at 8:03 pm
Bob,
That was even earlier than when we got out. I don’t think any schools were air-conditioned back then, and even now, none down here have air. Most Junes are not hot enough to bother kids so mid-June is about when schools close. It is a 180 day school year, and schools don’t begin until after Labor Day and if you add snow days, it is mid-June which is the earliest last day of school. There were 4 snow days this year.
I don’t think in my day they had social promotions. Now, in high school, you need a certain number of credits to move on to the next grade.
June 8, 2013 at 9:18 am
Hidy- Ho Neighbor,
As usual a few days behind… we leave for Washington DC tomorrow! Hubby has never been and our youngest doll who is 14 next week, cannot wait to be his guide ( we went 3 years ago). It is lovely to see her being so responsible and excited(!) and to want to learn and share at this age. I will catch up when I return, wishing you all this delightful Spring weather we are having here in the oHIo valley: cool nights and sunny days–xoxox
June 8, 2013 at 9:41 am
splendid,
I hope the weather cooperates in washington. I know your husband will have a great time with his wonderful guide. That is such an amazing city to visit with all it has to offer,. I could spend days in the Smithsonian alone.
Have a wonderful time!!!