DEBORAH CROMBIE: My little granddaughter started kindergarten last week. Oh, my, what a rite of passage that is! Do you remember your very first day of school? For me it was first grade, as we didn't have public kindergarten in my town in those days. I was an anxious kid anyway, so I was terrified. But it was exciting, too, and the most exciting part was getting school supplies. Number two pencils. Ruler. Scissors with blunt tips. Elmer's Glue and a box of crayons with that lovely waxy smell. Big Chief tablets and colored construction paper. A pencil case, oh joy, and art gum erasers. And last but not least, the lunchbox! (Branding was already underway.) We were ready to conquer the world!
Wren's school supply list was a lot more complicated, and her lunch box is a bento box, not a metal one with The Flintstones. But I'm sure she felt the same sense of promise and adventure, and I"m convinced that geeky kids who love school supplies never grow out of it. Some of us may even have grown up to be writers.
What about you, REDS? Any first day of school recollections? And what was your favorite part of the school supplies?
JENN McKINLAY: Fall was always my favorite season growing up in New England, because even though I was no scholar, I LOVED the social aspect of school. Uber extrovert - that’s me. School supplies are awesome! I still love buying a fresh clean notebook to jot down ideas and I love pencils and erasers. I was a weirdo when it came to the lunchbox, however. I passed over the Scooby Doo and Wonder Woman plastic boxes in favor of a metal red plaid lunch box. I still love plaid and I would still love that lunchbox if i had it.
DEBS: I love plaid, too, Jenn, and would have coveted that lunch box. I saw one just like you described on Pinterest--maybe you could find one!
HALLIE EPHRON: Oh my goodness do I remember the annual visit to the stationery store - an extinct creature today? Or Woolworths. See extinct. Buying such useful items as reinforcements. To be sure those precious pages would never come loose from my notebook.
And that first day coming home after school making subject labels for the notebook dividers. Though I don’t think lunchboxes had been invented yet (no memory of anybody having book bags or backpacks, either), or at least I never had one. Just brought my lunch in a paper bag and bought milk (chocolate please) at school.
The big deal for me was what to wear. Usually it was a plaid pleated skirt and white blouse (tucked in, of course) and shoes, oh the shoes had to be black flats or penny loafers with white socks. Oh, and where to sit. My favored spot , second row from the left, third seat back.
DEBS: Woolworth, Hallie! And we had M. E. Moses Five and Dime here in Texas, too. And as for the clothes, here's a photo I found of a class in 1959--
Look at the shoes, and the dresses! And here's Wren's classroom on her first day--
I would certainly choose the modern classroom! And the clothes! Wren is wearing jeans and tennis shoes.
RHYS BOWEN: having grown up in England I never experienced the joys of shopping for school supplies or new clothes. Uniforms. And the school supplied all notebooks etc. And we ate in the dining hall But Hallie reminded me of arriving early that first day to make sure I got the best seat. Second from the back, row beside the window! I could look out AND it was beside the radiator! ( my school was freezing cold).
I remember being excited each year because each year came with more privileges: this table at lunch, use this play area etc until one day I was a prefect with a study. Privacy. Brilliant.
DEBS: So interesting, Rhys, and so different.
LUCY BURDETTE: Oh I loved school and I loved going back to school every year. Like you Debs, I was an anxious girl, not an outgoing socialite like our Jenn! So I’m sure I was nervous too, but I only remember the excitement of the teacher assignments. Did we get someone whom everyone loved? That’s what I mostly remember. And I can remember some cute dresses like a dropped waist brown plaid dress with a white collar, that I’d still love today LOL. There was some angst my first year because my parents wanted to be sure that I knew how to spell my name. So either it had to be Bobbie, which was easier but not very accurate, or learn how to spell Roberta. I always had my older sister Sue on the bus with me, so I’m sure that helped all along the way. Our grandchildren seem to love nursery school and pre-K, so that is great news. It would be hard to know how to help a child who did not like school!
And PS, I suspect my seat was always up front because I couldn’t see very well. I think I finally got my glasses in fifth grade and suddenly things were much clearer!
JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I had a lot of first-day-at-the-new-school moments, since we were in the military and moved around a lot from post to post. I think I really began to enjoy the start of the school year after we got out - I only went to two high schools, the last for three years, so I felt I belonged.
My sister and I always got new outfits as teens, and I can remember spending what feels retrospectively like weeks going from sale to sale in August. My mother had a set budget, and the more things you could find that had been marked down, the more shirts/shoes/sweaters you could have! Like everyone else, I still love the new school supplies - paper and notebooks and organizers and pencils and pens. Honestly, September feels as much like a fresh start as January does.
Oh, and Rhys, I'm sorry you didn't get the fun of new clothes, but as the mother of three kids who went to parochial schools, I say, "Thank God for uniforms!" They make it so easy for parents...
HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:I loved going back to school. With three ring binders, and yes, reinforcements which you had to lick, and I’m not quite sure why they mattered, but it seemed so organized. What to wear, yikes, so critical, I remember in eighth grade or so...a black and white wool houndstooth skirt and a red crewneck sweater,which looked great, but the first day of school it was like, 80 degrees and I insisted on wearing it anyway. Oh, and whether your tennis shoes had to be shoe-polished white or completely scuffy--the cool people decided that, and we all followed. Same with whether you put a penny or a dime in your loafers--one way was acceptable, the other was a signal that you were out of it.
Then there was the first day when I was almost late because the night before, our cat Mrs. Purdy had kittens in my closet.
And sign of the horrible times, my grandson had his first day at college Friday, and turned out his roommate was NOT VACCINATED! His parents went politely nuts, and he got moved. (And yes, the school has a vaccine mandate.)
DEBS: Oh, Hank, that's terrible. But at least his school has a mask mandate. Wren's does not, and she is the only child in her class (and one of the few kids in her school) wearing one. Teacher is not masked either.
READERS, what are your first day of school memories? And are you still school supply geeks?
