First Day Back At School

   My son and I both fight to embrace the back to school theme in the middle of August. When I was growing up, school was always the first weekday after labor day to the first weekday before memorial day. There was no wondering about it. After the neighborhood's labor day picnic we knew the next morning was our first day back to the next grade. Our summers were sacred. Our parents had three months to schedule in the family two week vacation around their work schedules and our summer sports schedules. Every family seemed to take the obligatory two week vacation and our first assignment each year was telling the class where we went. I never recall a "stay-cation report." There was an adequate break to rotate all the kids through summer camps and plenty of  time to enjoy our summers of freedom spent mostly getting dropped off at the pool at noon and picked up in time for dinner.