First day of school

Coming in from the playground the children immediately headed for the sinks and began washing their hands. Their teacher, a new hire for the first grade students, though new to teaching, but not new to the school told them, "We're not washing our hands now, we need to move on to the library."

As I was listening to this conversation my mind brought me back twenty years when our new staff member was just a wee little Lassie. I remember watching her play around the soccer field while her dad, a policeman in our community, coached my five year old son's soccer team.

Not only is she all grown up, but now teaching in the very school she attended. 

As she tried to herd the children away from the sinks and down the hall to the library, one very smart little Missy told her, "It's what we always do." The teacher questioned her, "Wash your hands before library?"

In a tone indicating this was not new information she responded, "Uh, yeah."

I couldn't help but smile as I walked back to my room, our new teacher learned her first lesson today.

Greeting the parents and students as they were walking to the building I saw a dad with his two young sons. The boys had their hair combed, wearing crisp new clothes and each carrying a backpack. 

It was apparent they were ready for their first day of school, but ignoring the obvious I said, "All ready for school?" 

No response from the children, but the dad replied, I am.

We could all smell the stench permeating from the hallway, some kind of nasty sewage smell that no one should be smelling at anytime, let alone on the first day of school. The poor custodians were working hard trying to figure out what it was and how they were going to fix it.

The sewage pipes were clogged backing up the bathrooms and causing the toilets to over flow.

They were diligent is fixing the problem but it took most the afternoon to do so. I asked the exhausted custodian how he was doing.

Letting out a sigh," Ready for the day to be over."