throw back post

Well first it was Mom now it is Erika and we're all just melting and gooing over the memories of our childhood. Really, it's been hitting me a lot lately with it being Back to School and all. Dominick {brother} is beginning The Season {ya know, football bonanza shenanigan's with coaching starting up} and I can't help but notice the commercials for Back to School supplies at Target {god, I am jealous}. Without further ado, here is my contribution to the oozing over Back to School memories.

I remember so vividly The Day You Found Out What Teacher You Had. It was posted on white printouts side by side, taped up in the elementary school window by the front door at Colonial Hills. It was like Christmas and New Years and your birthday all wrapped up into one giant exciting day. It is what I imagine the equivalent of getting the "okay" by Simon on American Idol feels like {can't believe I just referenced AI...ew} or finding out you've been given the lead role at The American Ballet Academy in New York must feel like {20 cool points if you can tell me that awesome movie reference}. Tears were shed. Hugs were given. A HUGE fight between my brother and I ensued for the remainder of the summer after he ran up to the window, caught a glimpse of my name for 4th grade Mrs. Riley's class and had the audacity to tell me before my little legs could make it up to the window to read it myself. This day was epic. And I miss it dearly.

Then there were the supplies. Oh sweet jesus do I love me a good supply sale. I still salivate when I see a brand new set of Crayola markers and a bright colored pencil box. I remember so well going with Mom to check it all of the checklist and would bring it home to reorganize every other hour. And then once we got to take our supplies into school to find our desks, I would rearrange the desk about 20 times because I loved it all so much. New erasers from Hearts Desire (all the Hello Kitty you could find) and colored notepads for Lizzie, Erika, Caitlin and I to pass notes on. (Remember the red and green notepads I had? I STILL have notes saved on those).

Every August Grandma would use Dominick and I's birthdays as a special treat to take us on a mini shopping spree, to get ready for the school year. We each had our own special day with Grandma and she would take us to lunch then Kohl's and the Northland Mall (RIP) to gather new pairs of jeans, shoes and tops. In the later years she would take us to Abercrombie where big plaid button ups and spaghetti strap tank tops were a hit. I specifically remember wearing this to high school freshman year in the first week of school starting. I also painfully remember this is when my hair was two-toned blonde/orange on top of brown from all the sun-in we sprayed in our bangs at the Worthington Pool that summer. We knew an August start to school was calling for 80 degree days but that didn't stop us from wearing our new digs. It was new, for christ's sake and it was exciting.

Back to School memories aren't complete without fall sports starting shortly after my birthday. I always remembered my birthday being the sort of last hoorah before I had to buckle down and run to the high school for volleyball practice to begin. I would have to hurry out of my 2 piece sporty bikini {for all the diving board flips} and into my spandex and freshly white knee pads to begin practice in the hot gym. I miss those days and especially the smell; a mix of sun tan oil, chlorine and sweat after a long summer day of swimming and sports.

I remember mostly being excited about the idea of going Back to School. Although you had to wake me up with a blow-horn to my ear {and even that wouldn't work}, I was always thrilled to use my new supplies, see who I would have classes with or get to sit by. New textbooks were exciting because I got to wrap them in brown paper bags and I religiously and almost ceremoniously decoupaged mine with cutouts from cool magazines every year. I also will never forget the excitement surrounding the year I got to decorate my first locker in middle school. Talk about rearrangement and practicing your combination...it was all apart of the rite of passage to feeling older and more independent. Awesome awesome memories.

Of course, as Mom said, you always had to wonder at the beginning of every school year...to pack or to buy? Would you trade goodies? What did you request for Mom to buy for your lunch box? Who remembers when milk boxes became milk POUCHES? And who remembers Pizza Sticks?

Okay, I want to go back. I want to go back right now. I want to go drive up to Colonial Hills and see if Caitlin, Lizzie, Erika, Sarah, Sammi and I are going to be in the same class or not. Then I want to go to Target and blow a ton of money on my new pink and purple box to fill with markers and erasers and pens and mechanical pencils and I want to start finding new jeans for back to school, damnit.

And last. Last but certainly not least, I want to get a new Jansport backpack. To carry home all of my cloth-covered books we published at The Publishing Company.