It is hard to fathom, but summer is rapidly coming to a close. Labor Day weekend has come and gone and that can only mean one thing — fall is on the way.
Take a drive or a walk and chances are you will see some areas where the leaves are already starting to turn from lively shades of green to fiery hues of red and golden yellow.
Summer vacation has also come to an end as area schoolchildren headed back to school Tuesday. Back to school is a different beast today than it was in the 1970s. Back then, the only thing a kid needed was a new “cool” T-shirt (preferably a Star Wars one), pair of jeans, sneakers and a lunch box.
Today, parents are sent home a “checklist” of school supplies that their child must have when they report to school. The list includes all the usual stuff, but also asks students to come with sheet protectors, glue sticks (because we can’t have children squeezing Elmer’s Glue out of a tube and “accidentally” gluing their fingers together), several different colored highlighters, three-ring binders and their own personal headphones.
In addition to the checklist, parents are also sent a list of items their student’s classroom could use, such as tissues, hand sanitizer, Clorox wipes and Ziploc bags.
When I was kid, the checklist was pretty simple … a couple of No. 2 pencils, a sharpener, and if you were lucky a box of crayons.
Waiting for the bus was a much different experience as well, as multiple kids gathered at one central location, usually at the end of the street, which meant walking a short distance from your home to get to the bus stop. Today, a bus driver picks a child up directly in front of their house, sometimes stopping every 10 feet.
These are different times, I understand, but one has to wonder how any of us ever survived our childhoods. And how much more extreme will things be when our children have kids of their own?
It will likely be a difficult transition for many schoolchildren in RSU 29 this year with the closure of Wellington Elementary School in Monticello and the relocation of third- and sixth-grade classes. Administrators have done a great job of spelling out how all the changes will impact students and have also made it clear that it will be a “work in progress” this year as they try to figure everything out.
With the coming of fall, so too has comes a new season of soccer, football and cross-country for area student-athletes and fans.
Fall sports are my favorite to cover and this year proves extra special as the Houlton football team is embarking on its first season as a full varsity squad.
Get out and support your local schools as they compete on the soccer pitch, gridiron, or cross-country course. Student-athletes like nothing more than to hear the roar of their fans to spark them on to victory.
Joseph Cyr is a staff writer for the Houlton Pioneer Times. His opinions are his own and do not necessarily reflect that of the newspaper. He can be reached at pioneertimes@nepublish.com or 532-2281.
