Tuesday, June 7, 2022

Rain!

 It is a cool and windy day, and the rain is pouring down. Just what my garden needs. I am sure that this will make things 'pop'. I love that! 

Speaking of 'pop', the green spaces along the highways and the median strips between the traffic headed in in opposite directions? Why is that mown? It is a huge waste of Department of Transportation money. It seems so much simpler just to plant it all in wildflowers and let it go wild. 

This is the last week of school. I remember how that free feeling of getting off the bus one last time, and knowing that I did not have to go back to school for three whole months. William is getting psyched up for it now and I cannot listen to his excited chatter without remembering my own excitement 55 years ago.

So much has changed since then. I remember the big green shades above the open windows and rattle of them when the wind blew. The rows of florescent lights in the perforated tiled ceiling. The way the doors would be propped open at the end of each hall to make a breezeway. Parents simply walked into the school to pick up their kids. We had holiday parties with home made treats that our classmates bought in. 

So many tiny memories, and it makes me sad to think that our children and grandchildren will never know them. 

20 comments:

  1. It is sad that school involves so many precautions nowadays, but modern kids are making their own memories, believe me. We don't get out for summer until the 17th! I swear, we are grinding on longer than anyone else.

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    1. I guess that I'm a bit of a negative Nancy today. It just seems that so much has changed...and not for the better.

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  2. We didn't realise or appreciate back then how much freedom we had.

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    1. We had no idea of how the world would change.

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  3. Debby I enjoyed your memories here, this was a nice read. Are you anywhere near southwestern PA? Because we're getting a ton of rain in Pittsburgh today!

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  4. Northwestern pa, about two and a half hours from you.

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  5. We had good times when we went to school. We were also free range kids. I think our kids today will be able to look back at good times and routines that they enjoyed.

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    1. That's a hopefilled way to look at it, Red. Thanks.

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  6. Over here they use to give children long summer holidays so they could help with the haymaking.

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    1. That was the original reason here, as well.

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  7. If you don’t mow it, bird and deer poop will plant tree seeds that would eventually grow up and take a lot more labor to remove than years of one person mowing miles highway medians.

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    1. I understand the need to minimize trees, but I really think that mowing one a summer would solve that problem. Trees don't spring up over night.

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  8. I know they mow ours at certain times, but in the early spring they're always filled with red clover. It's lovely! (and I know the bees love it) -Kelly

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    1. It's so nice to look out across a field of wildflowers. It is just something that occurred to me. My neighbor has a wild yard, with wildflowers and hosta ringed trees. She does not mow, intentionally. I actually think it looks very nice. She got a warning from the city.

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  9. When I was at school parents never entered the school without an appointment. I was surprised when we walked one of our nieces to school a few years ago when she was about six and the parents all milled around inside the school chatting. It seemed very strange to me and in a way a bit risky.

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  10. Our parents walked in all the time, dropping off things that were forgotten, picking up their children for appointments. We never thought a thing of it. Now you cannot get into the school at all without being buzzed in.

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  11. Here they seem to be just cutting a narrower swathe of the verge to keep visibility and not get rid of everything.. cheaper and better!
    I remember walking and riding my bike to school from age 4 to 18. I am so glad that my grandsons rode to their junior school. Now it is the bus for them as secondary school is over five miles and a busy road away.

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    1. We had to ride the bus always. We lived quite a distance from the school.

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  12. Ours have a few more weeks left. I was surprised then JJ told me that he wasn’t looking forward to the end this year. He really likes his class.

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  13. William is anxious to be done.

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