With A Turn of the Calendar

And here it is September. We're three quarters into the year and to me it seems like we should still be in Spring or at least early June. I'm usually quite good at living in the present moment... and I did revel in the beauty of so many juicy joy-filled moments of my summer. Yet, I still feel like the days whipped past in a whirlwind, and I wonder if I actually fell asleep and missed the last month or so -- like old Rip Van Winkle.

The ruby red apple in the photo above is sitting on my counter. Nothing says autumn quite like the arrival of fresh, fragrant batches of apples in a grocery store or marketplace. And, then when you bite into the crunchy, crisp skin, there's that sweet juice dribbling down your chin and you feel like a kid again. For who of us of a certain age didn't have an apple rolling around in a little tin lunch kit (mine was patterned in red and black plaid) when we started first or second grade.

So, what else did you find in your lunchbox? I remember Grade Four very well for that was the year I wouldn't eat anything but tuna fish sandwiches. All year. Every day. I couldn't get enough. My poor mother was gagging already as she put together one more sandwich and wrapped it in waxed paper and tucked it next to the apple and a couple of cookies. She'd ask every morning, are you sure you want tuna again? Yup, I want a tuna sandwich. It would have been on homemade white bread. Yum!

And... did you take some of that wax paper with those little toothy edges and iron brightly coloured leaves between two sheets to hang in your classroom or on the kitchen window? Were you permitted to press the waxy pages together with the hot iron? Or did your mom do it? Did you love the smell of the wax as it melted? I sure did.

And... what about that first week of school when you wanted to take something for your new teacher and your mom would wrap a fistful of pointy petaled dahlias to take on the school bus, and you'd shyly, but proudly, present them to her when you got to school.
 

Sitting in the front row in my blue jumper with my Grade Two Class

All this talk of school days and I had to go find my old pictures. Here's my Grade Two Class. Staring into the faces of my old familiar classmates, I still remember everyone's names. And such a flood of memories of those wonderful, simpler times in the early 1960's.

I can even tell you which boy I really, really liked... he's standing on the end of the last row, on right side. He tried to give me a kiss once on the playground. Everyone else had already gone inside, the bell had rung, and we were trailing behind. I didn't realize what he intended. I was surprised and moved my head. So the kiss met empty air instead of my cheek.You know, I forever regretted not getting that kiss. I wonder if he ever did.

Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school. ~Albert Einstein

There... enough telling tales out of class. And all because we turned the page on the calendar. Here's wishing you a beautiful day and a wonderful September ahead!

Hugs

Brenda

xox