2016-08-08 “Life Experiences”

Sunday was the last day of July. For those of who have school aged children and gauge “summer” as being the period of time from the last day of the school year to the first day of the next school year, summer is essentially half over. Even though there are lots of warm days still ahead of us, somehow we’re thinking about the frost and snow that will come within the next few months. We have no reason not to think that the second half of “summer” won’t go by quicker than the first half and then we start to panic. We still have to pick up school supplies, maybe a new outfit for the first day of school, make sure running shoes still fit, lunch pails are still good, backpacks still zip up and oh yes… we still have to fit in all of those day trips we had planned and haven’t done yet. I remember when I was a kid that our big day trip for the summer was to go to London to do our back to school shopping. There was a department store just south of 401 that we would go to and then we would go to the downtown mall on the corner of Wellington and York. It was the first of its kind, or so I thought. I always wondered why, when we went to the city that we had to pay ten cents to use the bathroom. Determined not to fall for that scam, I slid under the door. It makes me cringe now to think about that…

I’ve been getting kids ready for school now for 30 years and aside from making school lunches, those 30 years along with the 5 years that preceded them they have been the best years of my life. Like all of you, I’ve had peaks and valleys, I’ve made mistakes and learned, I’ve laughed and cried but in the end it’s been the most awesome experience that I could ever imagine. I’d do it all over again if I could. When we get together and the kids talk about the good times in their lives, they talk about the things that we did and not about material things. They talk about the games we played at Grandma and Grandpa’s house or riding their bikes uptown and buying freezies. As my daughter Lynn says “It’s not the things you have in life that make it important, it’s the experiences you have that make it important”.

Until next time,

Marc