No more back to school

For the first time in 19 years I don't have someone going back to school.

In that regard I can regard the current "Back to School" advertising as being even more annoying than usual.

But I can't help but let there be a wisp of nostalgia about it.

There was always something fresh about the prospect of another academic year, even as my daughter Elizabeth and son David progressed through college. There was still the talk of the courses they were going to take, the books and supplies they needed to buy, the living arrangement details they needed to finalize.

Now, in addition to being an Empty Nester, I'm a Unschooled Parent (in more ways than one, some might argue).

Elizabeth is happily at work as a doctor of physical therapy in Connecticut after what seemed like years and years and years of back to schools.

David is a May graduate of Boston College, and he is now engaged in the job of finding a job.

It may indeed be back to school some day for him, but as of this academic year I can ignore the ebbing tide of summer to thoughts of school.

This will make me want to hold onto summer for as long as I can, especially since here in northern New England there wasn't much of a summer through all of June and a good portion of July.

Somebody somewhere owes me more summer. I expect payment in August and, quite frankly, through all of September.

With a fall school season I can ignore, I can give myself the gift of the Endless Summer, with a nod to the 1966 movie of the same name. It's having the attitude of always being on on vacation from readin', writin' and 'rithmetic. It's scoping out surf gear instead of scoping out back to school sales.

I can be the beach bum I always wanted to be, worrying more about how glassy or choppy or big the surf will be rather than worrying about the best rate on tuition loans.

But the Endless Summer -- as it has always been -- is a fantasy.

There's the small matter of winter around here.

And even with no back to school, there's still plenty of readin', writin' and 'rithmetic to do.