Back to School

For those of you that come here to be inspired by my fly fishing anecdotes I apologize.
Gas prices, weather and abysmal returns have made it a real struggle this summer. I had some early season success with trout until someone pulled the plug on the flows in my favorite trout streams. That coupled with warm weather which heats up the water and thus makes catch and release a dangerous (for the fish) proposition.
I've been fighting a lot of "web wars" with those silly republicans and it's like they even make it too easy! Sarah Palin for Christ Sake? Well she does kind of have that naughty librarian look to her doesn't she?
Anyway it's Labor Day Weekend! The traditional end of summer. The last chance to BBQ those salmon that didn't show up or take that last summer trip with the kids to the beach before school starts back up.
As a kid I absolutely hated this weekend. You vainly tried to fit in a summers worth of fun into three short days of Labor Day weekend. I would find myself looking at the clock and sadly watching my summer freedom tick away.
Damn, I would think to myself, no more staying up and watching TV until all the stations signed off for the night. No more staying out late with the neighborhood kids playing "ditch", a kind of hide and seek variation. No more sleeping in and doing nothing or sleeping over at my pal Ted Rhea's house.
Yes that last weekend was horrible. New clothes and school supplies always seemed to be put off until that last weekend so off we would go to the local JC Penney's, Woolsworths or WT Grants to take care of it.
Oh how I hated those new packages of JC Penney's underwear that my parents bought me or those new blue jeans that were not washed before wearing and therefore they could almost stand up by themselves they were so stiff. Being a "Husky" kid I always had to roll the cuffs up because the length was too long for a fat kid like myself. They looked like I had both of my feet in buckets.
I also hated those Big Chief writing tablets and Pee-Chee folders or the new No. 2 pencils that my dad insisted on scribing my name into. I would think why in the hell do I need a protractor for anyway.
Remembering back on the first day of junior high I was shocked to see those formerly homely tomboy girls suddenly turned into babes over the three months of summer vacation. Of course I and my friends had absolutely no luck in charming those girls we had teased in 5th and 6th grade. We were still those clumsy oafs who had not magically turned into hunks over the summer.....Geez that seemed so unfair at the time and stills does.
So as I browsed the "Back To School" aisle of the local department store yesterday and saw all those sad looking kids with their moms buying school supplies. I felt like telling them that I felt for them and they should enjoy being young when the only thing you had to worry about are those new jockey shorts and biting the erasers off of your new pencils that your dad put your name on.
Hope you all had a great summer!