Early Fall Reflections

I’ll admit to being a child nerd, who looked forward to the opening of school every year after third grade. Seeing school friends, getting new textbooks, especially the social studies books and new readers, was just a grand thing to my little girl self.

Every year, our teacher of that particular grade would tell us “not to read ahead” in the good books; and every year, I read them completely the first night. Having to wait to resolve situations, chapter by chapter, would have been pure agony for me; so I disobeyed. But...I never admitted it.

School was fun for me, and I enjoyed all subjects until I hit high school math. While I learned to work algebra and geometry, these were always my least favorite subjects. I found out then that word subjects were my best bets for good grades; numbers subjects came in a definite second.

As I write this, my grandsons are getting ready for another school year; and, my, how times have changed.

We don’t know as of now if they will be forced to wear the air-restricting masks again or if they will breathe freely as people are intended to do. They don’t have textbooks to any great extent, having to rely on computer programs where a parent cannot see what they are being taught. Arithmetic in Louisiana schools has been replaced with Common Core math (by another name now) that is an abomination and a road to mediocrity in solving problems. No spelling lists, no vocabulary lists, no reading assignments, no book reports on real books—just a new world from the one I occupied for my childhood.

At any rate, we must play the hand we’re dealt and do the best we can in educating our little ones. That will take a lot of parental supervision and outside-theschool learning. Are parents today up for it?

School starts early now, but we always started after Labor Day in September, when it might be a tad cooler in the non-airconditioned school buses and classrooms. That is one thing we still look forward to in September, even now, the possibility of a little cooler weather and a lessening of the killing humidity. I believe that sultry is the word for the condition of our weather in July and August, and the hint of fall days in September is certainly anticipated when a person can walk outside and breathe at the same time.

For us farm folk, late August and September are the time for harvests to begin, culminating a year of work with hope for a fair price for our crops. Now is not the time for those afternoon showers that only slow down the work of the combines and cotton pickers. We need the dry season now.

And then, once we’re done with September, it’s October with football games and tailgate parties, and class reunions for homecoming games— activities that we look forward to all summer and things that keep us connected to our families and friends and Southern way of life.

Halloween ends the month, and I could write an entire column on how Halloween has been hijacked by modern culture, masking, if you will, the true intentions of the holiday.

So for now, let me skip the history lecture and just wish all of our readers a pleasant and peaceful September and October with dry weather for harvest, wins for our school football teams, and cool days with low humidity for us and our pets.

Columnist Alma Womack lives on Smithland Plantation on Black River, south of Jonesville, Louisiana. In addition to her duties as maitresse des maison, she is the keeper of the lawn, the lane and the pecan orchard at Smithland.