Declining Summer

I saw peewee football players in the park the other day instead of baseball players. Sometimes I still see baseball players, but footballers are part of the transition, a hint of fall even before it cools down much. Actually, it's already cooled down a fair amount from the highs of June and July. August is less like August this year than the previous two months were. Go figure.

Also, Ann starts school tomorrow. It will be the 10th time a child of mine has started a school year by walking the short distance from our house to her elementary school. The custom is for all the kids to meet on the blacktop part of the playground, with each teacher there holding up a sign with her name on it (or delegating the task to an early-arriving kid). Many parents are there, too, some even taking pictures.

I think Ann will ask both of us to walk with her, which might be the last time, even though there are two more first days of school to come for her at this school after tomorrow. I'm pretty sure Lilly didn't want to be seen with us in fifth and sixth grades.

Two more first days provided, of course, the world doesn't end in December. Earlier this summer, I had to re-assure Ann that nothing special along those lines is going to happen, since she was fretting for a few moments about it.