summer
Saturday, September 1, 2012 at 2:32PM As of midnight tonight, summer will officially be over. Labor Day in Minnesota signals the end of the State Fair and the beginning of the new school year.
That's how we roll, all agricultural and stuff.
When I was teaching in other states, states who got their start dates all wrong, school began in August. Even after a dozen years, it always felt wholly incorrect to do this, like the school calendar had been created by a bad, bad man who deserved a stern talking to and some eggs thrown at his car.
School is supposed to start in September. It just is.
Today, children are running, pell-mell, all over this fine state, through the forests, across the lakeshores and riverbanks.
One last hurrah.
No one says pell-mell anymore.
Why is that? Let's bring it back, just you and me.
You start saying pell-mell and I will too, OK?
You know what else I like? I like the word beserkly.
As in, "The horsedogs romped beserkly through the late summer woods."
"Hurtling themselves harum-scarum into the marsh,"
"Whilst stirring up all manner of water fowl."
I will pay you $20 if you can legitimately work "whilst stirring up all manner of water fowl" into polite conversation this week.
Or one million dollars if you can say the following with a mouth full of marbles:
With blackest moss the flower-pots
Were thickly crusted, one and all
Name that movie.
The woods this time of year are full of fungi.
I stumbled across these miniscule examples whilst allowing my equine-canines to gambol helter-skelter one eventide.
That's how I roll.
Goodbye, summer.
Thank you, Minnesota, for your state laws that require school to start at the appropriate time.
When does school start where you are? The right time or the wrong time?
Reader Comments (31)
Two more days to school starting here in Orange County, CA. Sometimes we can get it right!!
Oh my goodness, I can never read that phrase correctly in my head because it always sounds like "wiff backish moff, da fooooooower poughts were fickwee cwusted one eh awwwl". Now I know what I'm going to do this afternoon - watch "My Fair Lady" while working on my crochet. I'll run pell mell later... I promise.
I, too, cannot bring myself to rush pell-mell into the school year before summer is properly over. :-D (Look at that! I'm so proud of me!) Schools in our area started up two to three weeks ago. Meanwhile MY children started school yesterday. Oh, the advantages of being principle, teacher's union, PTA and parents, all in one! :-)
Our schools start all over the place with the earliest I know on July 31. Last year we heard that the state legislature voted to change all starts to after Labor Day - and all went "hurrah"! It apparently was only a rumor, sadly. I really enjoyed your language in this post. Elegant language is a measure of the person. Happy Fall to all!
Thoroughly enjoyed the photos & verbosity Sharon!! You always entertain & bring beauty to our lives!!
Sharon,
I KNOW that you don't miss MCPS's erroneous approach to the start of the school year. This year, school started on
August 27th. Now that is JUST WRONG!!!
I saw the first yellow leaf drifting down today - it would have be fine to start school this week!
margiein[montgomery county]maryland
Looks like a wonderful way to wrap up the summer! My girls love your horsedogs - especially how not a single paw seems to touch the ground in those first two pictures! :)
I grew up with normal school years, starting after Labor Day, ending in the first half of June. Our little school district has opted to shift the calendar so Christmas break comes as the midpoint, so finals are before break. So kids start school in the first half of August, and are done mid-May. This makes sense on one level, but on a very practical level it's terrible! Our middle school is 3 stories, and has no A/C; in mid-August it is very hot, in the 90's (F). How can children learn? And they don't want to be in class, they want to be in the pool!
My 11 yo DD has accepted your challenge and will be looking for the chance to work "whilst stirring up all manner of waterfowl" into her conversation! :)
Happy Back to School!
School started here today, and the first day of school always seems like the start of a new year to me. This year I am retired tho and home for the day. For years I took the first day of school as a holiday so I could enjoy the quiet of the kids being gone.
To celebrate fall I am making White wine/Crabapple jelly....it smells wonderful.
"I swallowed one!"
"Oh it's all right, I have plenty more here."
August 7. Can you believe that?!? It's ridiculously early, and it seems like it gets earlier every year. It really makes no sense because the schools are wasting so much money on electric bills because of the air conditioning needed during the hottest month of the year.
In Michigan, we rightly start school after Labor Day. It's the Law---which takes into account we thrive on tourism, and kids can't travel with their parents or work summer jobs if they're in school. Yeah! My middle-schooler's first day was today, Wednesday!
(I'll send this post to my sister, who is a MN reading teacher that doesn't believe in The Right Start, but favors year-round school... She has, however, mastered "the Stink Eye" and has used your blog in her reading classes as a writing example. I have a feeling her students might be seeing the horsedogs again!)