READIN' & WRITIN" & 'RITHMETIC

Pat Spilseth

Is your mind spinning with that old song about school days?  It’s that time of year again; Labor Day means the end of summer.  It brings back those dreaded thoughts of hot days and sweating palms.

“School days, school days

 Dear old golden rule days

 Readin’ and ritin’ and ‘rithmetic

Taught to the tune of the hickory stick

You were my queen in calico

I was your bashful barefoot beau

And you wrote on my slate

“I love you, so”

When we were a couple of kids...”

A reality check: at that time of your life, who knew anything about a hickory stick?  That was before we were school age kids, wasn’t it?  And how about those slates?  That sounds like something out of Charles Dickens’ novels.

But the tune keeps playin’...

So many School Days songs have been created through the years.  I’m particularly partial to those surfin’ Beach Boys’ tunes.  Sure, today they’re all in their sixties and seventies, but they were so cool in my school days.   And when they sang “Graduation Day”, who could help but shed a few tears for memories long gone?

And when Jeannie C. Riley came out with “Harper Valley PTA”, we grabbed a partner and ran out onto the dance floor.  Best of all, I did love slow dancing to the Four Lads when they sang “Moments to Remember”.  

Throw in Doris Day’s “Teacher’s Pet” and the Jackson 5’s “ABC”.  Nobody can sit still.  We have to be dancin’!

It’s about that time again.  Labor Day means school starts the next day, which many times happened to be my birthday.  The State Fair is over; reunions are done, and moms have started to can those juicy Colorado peaches.  No more swimming at the beach; no more picnics; no more sunning with Coppertone.  

It’s time for new jeans, tennies, cords and new wool sweaters.  Sure, you’re bound to sweat profusely that first day of school, when the temperature in the hot classrooms hits 90.  But you’ll look so good!  

I sure hope your school will be air conditioned.  Who can manage to sit still and learn multiplication tables, historic dates or all the “be” verbs when the dew point is over 65 in the classroom?  Why is school starting before the weather cools down in MInnesota?

It’s a nerve-wracking time of year for kids.  Identities and reputations are made those first days of school.  Self-esteem can be so easily shattered if a guy doesn’t make the football team or a girl the cheerleading squad or get that drama role she had her heart set on. If you’re a teenager, you worry about dating.  School days can be ego-crushing days.  Then what does a parent do to fill the social void of their kid?  And there are other dilemmas.  Why can’t I have a car?  How do I cover my pimples? I’m 13; why won’t you let me date?  I’m a teenager now, almost grown up!

When that big yellow school bus comes roaring around the corner, kindergarteners may have those tummy-tumbling pangs as strong as their older siblings.  Not having moms and dads nearby can be traumatic; doubts creep into their minds.  Tears may surface.  I was a basket case my first day of first grade in Miss Gwen Turnquist’s classroom until I spied my neighborhood pal in another wooden desk with a flip-top.  Then Mom could leave.  Martha saved the day.  

Then comes high school and trying to remember where the next classroom is and what my locker combination is and did I remember the right book for class...teen life is such turmoil.  But college is the true independence test:  no parents, no bedroom of my own, and will I have any friends?  When I left for college, Lynn Krook, Dad’s deputy sheriff at the jail, gave me a “crying towel” to soothe my tears so far from home.  Years later that towel is still in use, but not by me.  Son Andy uses it to clean boats at his Tidyboat business on the lake.  We are a recycling family.

That’s all in the past now.  Thankfully, it was way back, when we were a couple of kids.  719