This is a “not to be forgotten” summer. We are about to be “mildewed” or soggy. Is that better than melting from heat waves? What would an ideal summer be like on the weather front?

All the media are busy these days, with back-to-school, back-to-college and fall fashion advertising. It is strange to not need to worry about getting young people ready to go back to anything! The scramble to get five youngsters prepared to start school is easy to recall! It was a full-scale production.

Before we had a superintendent for our town, and while it was still a small school system, we used to rely on a handful of parents to help out the first week of school. Volunteers greeted the scholars as they debarked from buses. Always, someone was crying, someone needed to find the bathroom, and several wanted to go back home. It only took a few days for things to iron out and adjustments were made by week’s end.

The first time I assisted at this back-to-school operation, I remember how sorry I felt for a few of the new pupils who came dressed in their new clothes.

There were always a few of these first time students, who were decked out in beautiful new outfits – beautiful and warm. Too warm for a September day that could easily end up in the eighties. These babes in winter clothing were red-faced and miserable. And I promised myself that I would forever after, let my children wear something comfortable and suitable for summer, when they headed back to school.

We had one nightmare year when the new school wasn’t ready to open; the kindergarten rooms couldn’t accommodate the enrollment, and several classes had to go up to the high school until the new school opened – by mid-year if all went well.

I actually had to make a brief list of the times our five left for class. It became more complicated when half day sessions were necessary and these were to be reversed at mid-year – (morning children to go afternoons, etc). This required bus schedule changes and meal changes at home. It was an absolute horror for the school administrators, who had to juggle the times and lunch plans, bus times and a careful scrutinizing of the weather in the winter months – worries about getting everyone home safely were an absolute priority.

On the home front, I had to get meals, prepare lunches, and get one or two children to bus stops on two different sides of the house. It is no wonder I once put a child on the Route 110 side of the house, instead of on Wheeler Road, and he got left behind.

I learned to pack lunches before 7 AM and to label them with proper names. If some days it was “school lunch” day, there had to be a lot of change on hand to give each one the proper amount.

It was exhausting and a challenge. Parents shared stories about their particular problems. Some had to get to work, as well as get children to school. In a mood of concern, disbelief and humor, I wrote my weekly column about the continuous chases in our household. It is one of the two columns I ever wrote that got a large number of calls, notes, and comments.

Many prayers that year were directed toward the crews working on the new school. The topsy-turvy schedules lasted the entire school year and we all lived through it and learned to forever after, appreciate normalcy!

This year, I am fixing up a small box of “necessities” to give the one family member departing for college. It is fun to be giving something for a back to school grandson!

Things have been a bit quiet on the “bird watch” this week. Occasionally some come by for a snack while it’s raining. But most of them wait till the showers are over, except for the resident bluejay, who has three times again, come during a brisk rain to take a bath in the water dish. This is either a very dirty or very clean bluejay!

The quote last week was by George Orwell, in his book Animal Farm, a book still in print since the early 1940’s. It has been printed in more than seventy languages.

Who said, “I have not yet begun to fight?”