8/18/07

Ding dong - school’s in session

Trio-O's: Oddities, observations & opinionsBy Herb Kandel

That’s the bell that sounds the start of another school year. It seems to sneak in earlier each time, like ageing. When those of us born in a much earlier decade answered that toll, it was after Labor Day and not at the near height of summer. The season of sun and fun had a point of demarcation, and the serious work of learning was started. Occasionally we experienced an Indian Summer where the weather was unusually warm or sunny in autumn, but it seems almost a sin against nature to be closeted in a classroom when radiant August bathes the outdoors, and new high temperature records are being set.
The back-to-school ads are in circulation as soon as the last firecracker is heard on the Fourth of July. Retailers and manufacturers rush the season and are as close on the heels of the time lapse as when Christmas ads appear on Halloween. Not only for school supplies and books for the “writ’n and read’n” but for the now “necessary” gadgets such as cell phones with GPS options
No, I’m not going to tell you about our eight mile walks to school in blizzards, going uphill in both directions. But things were a lot simpler then.
Our requirements were usually a composition book, yes, the one with the black and white marbled squiggles on the cover, a pencil box with a No. 2 pencil, pen (the kind with a replaceable nib that you dipped in the ink well on your school desk), a pink eraser, a 6-inch ruler that was marked only in inches and a manual pencil sharpener (that small rectangular block with a blade attached, which shaved the point when twirled). Boys usually carried books in cupped hands at their side or over their shoulder bound with an old belt. Girls almost always held them cradled in front with hands grasping forearms. The obligatory backpack of today, sold to preschoolers on up, wasn’t seen.
Some of the new supply lists include glue sticks, highlighters, dry markers, dry erasers, Post-it notes, folders, index cards, crayons, Zip lock baggies, hand sanitizers, boxes of tissue, paper towels and baby wipes. Not included but seen as necessities are the designer clothes, expensive athletic shoes, and cell/camera phones in the red new hue. I know that many schools have uniform dress codes and ban cell phones and pagers, but that does not stop the advertisements for them or their surreptitious use.
You’ve heard of identity theft and how to protect yourself from it. Do you know there is a company that personalizes school supplies to prevent their theft, loss, or being switched. Now Johnny can tell Heather that the pen she is using is really his and prove it. Identitydirect.Com boasts over 500 products that can be personalized from pencils, lunch bags, toiletry bags, beanbags, headbands, memo pads, clipboards and, of course, the backpack — comes in pink, too. We certainly are introducing the hazards of adulthood at an early age.
Not having been in school for many years, I wonder if the odors are still there. You could have been blindfolded in my public high school and still know in which room you were. Who can forget the pungent scents of the cafeteria with brown gravy filling the scooped cavity made in the mashed potatoes and forming rivulets around the meatloaf, the fresh smell of shaved wood from the wood-turning lathes in the mandatory shop class (for the boys; girls attended home-making), the eye-burning, chlorine-infused air of the swimming pool, the white crumby paste and mucilage aroma in the library, the metallic coppery reeking air of the band room, or the malodorous cloud that hung over the gym locker room — where were Odor-Eaters when you needed them.
Outside, making sure the wind was at their backs, eraser monitors clapped the felt erasers, and puffs of chalk dust mushroomed forth. I’m not sure, but in these times the EPA or Hazmat may have a voice in regulating wafting whiffs.
So, off you go boys and girls, to an adventurous time in your life. Some day, in the future, you may cherish your “good old days” of those antique ipods, hip-hop, Bluetooth, Sponge Bob, texting, blogging, Harry Potter and break dancing. We celebrate your growing along with your new experiences and hope that your backpack is not overloaded.