For many kids around here, today is the first day of school. It’s been quite a while since I had a first day of school. My last “First Day of School” was when I was taking classes at Lipscomb in the Spring of 1999, but those days are long gone.
Here are some random memories of the first day of school:
Just a few days before school started, my mom would take me and my sister out to Wal-Mart or Target to buy school supplies. In the early 80s, we’d buy our stuff at the Big K (since there was no such thing as Wal-Mart around here). It was somewhat exciting to get new stuff for school, but there was always a sense of sinister foreboding that seemed to follow you around at those back to school sales at the retail stores. It was a sense that your fun time was over and it was time to get back to work.
It was a big deal in Junior High and High School when you picked out your wardrobe on the first day. You only get one chance to make a first impression, so I always put alot of thought into it.
Then there was meeting my teachers. My sister usually paved the way for me since she was a good student. If I got one of her old teachers, I usually had an advantage since the teacher would assume I was a good student too.
On a related note, I think I will go to my old elementary school and pull my permanent record to see what’s in there. In order to instill fear onto students, teachers would always say “This will go on your permanent record.” Well what exactly is “Your Permanent Record” ? Does it show all the grades that you ever made? Does it show that “B” I made on that obscure spelling test in the 2nd grade? Stanford Achievement Test Scores?
My friend, Roy Agee‘s girlfriend, Kristie Ridgon, made it onto a story on CNN.com with this AP photo.