BY KYLE LOVERN

Going back to school was always exciting, even for someone who did not necessarily like to get up early and head back after a long, hot summer.

Most “baby boomers” remember school letting out around Memorial Day in May and not starting back up until after Labor Day, or the first week of September. We were lucky to get three fun-filled months off for our summer break.

Those were fun times as you could sleep in, stay up later and enjoy the carefree days of the summer. We swam and went fishing in the Tug River, played baseball, rode our bikes, and enjoyed the extra long daylight hours where it really didn’t get dark until around 9 p.m.

However, getting ready to go back to school meant a trip to “town” (Williamson) to buy some new school clothes and shoes. Or of course you had to get a new notebook, a couple of packs of paper, and some pencils. That is about all we needed back in the day, unlike the kids in today’s world. Clothes could be bought at places like Cantees, Coxes, Penny’s, and shoes at Jimmy’s Friendly Shoe Store, The Cinderella Boot Shop and other businesses that are nothing but memories these days.

I would have been fine with a couple of pairs of jeans, new tennis shoes and a couple of shirts. But my mom, like many of that day, wanted to buy me “dress” shoes and dressier slacks. That was tough on someone whose favorite time of day was recess and getting to play whatever sport was in season. Those shoes and clothes did not bode well in those athletic situations for someone like me that went all out sliding into base, diving for a ball, or whatever I saw my sports heroes on TV do.

I’m sure many girls picked out their first day of school outfit or dress. As for me, I couldn’t care less. Whatever my mom laid out for me to wear was what I wore that day until I got older and tried to wear more jeans and casual shirts.

I remember many of us wolfing down our lunch to get outside quicker at lunch break to have a little more time to play. We were seasonal with our sports, whether it was baseball or softball, touch football or basketball, you can be sure there were some great games in those old schoolyards. We would choose sides, or in our case at Nolan, many times it was the fifth grade against the sixth or the seventh grade going up against the older eighth graders. Our class didn’t always have enough boys to field a softball team, so we had two or three girls on our team; believe me, they could hold their own.

Today kids most likely want a cellphone, a new name-brand backpack, colored pencils or markers, separate composition books for each class, and a laptop or tablet for those who can afford it. Some school systems supply tablets these days. I suppose you can’t even do your homework without getting on the internet with some of today’s online lessons.

The new school year often meant seeing new faces of someone that might have moved into the community. But of course, there were those old friends that you had grown up with. It also meant having a new classroom and adjusting to a different floor as we grew up and got to the higher grades.

It often also meant having a new teacher from the first through the fifth grades. But once we got to the middle school years at Nolan Grade School, we had the same three teachers that rotated for the sixth to eighth grades to help us prepare for high school, where we would have different teachers for different subjects.

I always remember worrying and stressing about losing my lunch money when I was very young. I guess I eventually got over that, but it must just be in my DNA to be a worrier about losing things.

Of course your school work was different and perhaps a little tougher as you advanced into the higher grades. You had to buckle down and work hard to get good grades. I did OK but was labeled a “daydreamer” by one teacher who talked to my mom. Perhaps I was already writing in my head some future columns or books. I know I used to love to draw and create things that reminded me of comic books or maybe some of my favorite television shows like Batman, Star Trek and Lost in Space.

Looking back now, I adhere to the fact there is a “right brain-left brain” theory of where I was good at English, Reading and Spelling but not so good when it came to Math. What can I say? I guess I was a journalist in the making back then and didn’t even know it.

The day started with the Pledge to the Allegiance to the flag and singing “My Country Tis of Thee.”

The clock on the classroom wall was brutal. It taunted us, moved at a snail’s pace every time I glanced up at it, hoping for the end of the day.

It’s hard to believe some of us baby boomers are now old enough to have our Medicare cards. Our grandchildren are learning things in schools we never had on computers and the internet. Some may already even have grandkids in college.

Even if you were not a big fan of classwork and returning to school, we have many memories of those first days of Fall. I’m sure many of you have your own special recollections and things that make you smile from those early days of the new school year.

(Kyle Lovern is a longtime journalist in the Tug Valley. He is now a retired freelance writer and columnist.)