Can You Hear This?

Back to school is an event that never fails to amaze me each year. My sweet boy is entering high school this year and I can hardly believe it. It was just yesterday that I took him to his first grade orientation to meet his teacher. Now I’ll be lucky if he lets me pull into the school parking lot to drop him off. I won’t be surprised at all if he asks me to let him out a block away so he can saunter up looking “cool” instead like he doesn’t yet have his own car, let alone a driver’s license.

By the way, has there been some flash-back to the previous century I missed somehow? Beau actually used the word “groovy” earlier this week. What’s up with that? Do idioms come back in style like clothes, handbags, belts and shoes? (I have this thing for handbags and belts and I will save them for years.) Hard to imagine, but, yes, I’ve still got items that have managed to come around again. Oddly, enough, they’re old but this time the “distressed” look is in, so I’m covered! Truthfully, I thought the styles of the 60s and 70s were ugly in the 60s and 70s, I have yet to figure out what possessed designers to repeat these fashion faux pas. Trying to recapture their youth?

Face it people, hip huggers, bell bottoms and halter tops barely look acceptable on Twiggy, they certainly don’t flatter anyone over 20 years of age or 110 pounds. So why would you even try to go there? I absolutely refuse to consider the “peasant” look which seems to be popping up everywhere. I was actually floored to see a woman who had to have been at least 50+ in the grocery store yesterday wearing a skin tight tank top, a peasant skirt and platform shoes. Maybe it’s the “if you can’t beat ‘um, join ‘um” mentality of clothes shopping.

I much prefer the tailored, classic looks of the 40s and 50s but that doesn’t mean I want to be June Cleaver and wear my Chanel two-piece and stileto pumps while on a step ladder electroluxing my door facings. (I actually saw her doing just that in one episode and I didn’t watch that many. But when you only have one black and white TV with 3 channels, you often had to take whatever you could get—assuming the foil was properly adjusted on the rabbit ears!)

Then there are the school supply strategies of the local soccer moms that I just can’t deal with. Buy at least one of everything, two if you’re not sure whether they’ll need it or not. It’s a case of pushing, shoving and grabbing of the highest order, barely short of a riot. Just so you know, I’ve failed as a super mom since I didn’t stock up on every conceivable office supply item available at Wal-Mart. ME… go near that mob, are you crazy??? You’d think it was the double discount rack at Stein Mart. Beau has decided that it’s okay since he doesn’t have any clue yet what the teachers will require this year for supplies. He’s decided he’ll just go to school and wing it a couple of days until they give him a list.

Back in the day when I went off to high school the first time, it was ever so simple. You had a three-ring binder with some new notebook paper in it and a writing utensil or two and you were set. We didn’t have backpacks, we actually carried our books in our arms. Beau acts “put upon” if he has to carry more that one thing in his hands as he expects anything going back and forth should fit in his backpack or computer case.

Oh, yeah, did I mention that our school district has been providing laptop computers to all students from 6-12 grade? My former alma mater didn’t even provide a pocket calculator let alone a personal computer. (Yes, personal computers were around, they just weren’t real portable back then.) Beau is even taking a language class via teleconferencing! Boy have things changed!

The way I figure it, observing technology developments from my school days to now, books will soon be obsolete, and before you know it, “Scottie” will be beaming the kiddies back and forth to class. With the price of gas these days, the sooner that happens the better!