Back to School

How I used to hate the season. All summer long we enjoyed having the kids at home. We all worked hard, but we had good times too. Between fairs we found activities that were educational, but more fun than getting dirty, even though we were broke more often than not.

Actually at some of them we got real dirty too, which is never bad from a kid's point of view. In between museums, (and Upstate NY has a plethora of fine ones,) and fishing, driving around the countryside, (back when gas was affordable), and 4-H dairy club activities, we noodled around in the Schoharie Creek down in the Middleburgh area hunting for rocks full of fossilized brachiopods. 

In that region the creek bed is carved out of rock that is as full of them as a hound is full of fleas.

At first we only picked up small rocks with exposed fossils. You could find a pocketful quite quickly, especially if you were young and full of enthusiasm. If you were built close to the ground and had sharp kid eyes, so much the better. Some days Alan plied the pools with his fishing poles, we ate picnic lunch from in the cooler, and then clambered up and down the banks all day, swatting skeeters and picking up stones.

Then the boss, being a guy and all, started bringing home bigger rocks with more fossils.

Next he slapped on the safety goggles, got out the weaponry...er...tools.... and started splitting them. It was like opening Christmas presents. Inside you might find the equivalent of an ugly sweater from Aunt Sally, just more boring stone. However, sometimes a full brachiopod would tumble out into your hand, or a whole shelf of dozens  would be revealed (more like a package from that favorite grandma who always knew just what you liked).Everybody loves a treasure hunt and my flower beds were full of fossils.

Sometimes at back to school time we took that show on the road and hauled unopened rocks to science science class. It was was a bit like conjuring. Here you see a plain grey rock. Bam, bam, bam, voila! creatures from antiquity, seen for the first time by human eyes. Magic.

It was cool.

Nowadays I still feel melancholy this time of year, despite the fact that everyone is grown and back to school no longer holds the threat of loneliness and endless struggles to maintain our family values in the face of the cultural onslaught that takes place in public schools...(My girls failed a TEST (!!!!) in elementary school because they didn't know the details of Disney's The Little Mermaid, because we didn't let them watch junk TV when they were small. Don't get me started.)

Anyhow, the fair is over, the sky is gloomy, rain is coming (and big time) and the farmer's wife is gloomy too....deadlines looming, short crops, long bills, and no good news on the dairy front, acres of second cutting ready, the baler's broken for the second time in a week, and that rain on the horizon means it's doomed......Sorry about that.....I'll cheer up when the sun comes back.