Last night on TV I saw the first back-to-school commercial. Sure, it was for laptop computers, a large expense for any family, but still...there's more than a month of summer vacation left for students.
When I was a youngster, the back-to-school commercials spelled impending doom for our young bits of freedom. A pall descended over us, even though we knew it was coming about the same time every year. And every year we hoped that maybe aliens from outer space would invade the Earth and they'd have to cancel school so we could take up arms to repel the alien invaders.
Once I got to be a teenager, I realized no aliens were going to invade the planet before school started. But by then I discovered a whole new skill that moderated having to go to school -- cutting classes.
I honed my skills to a fine point until I was finally caught. But by that time I figured out different ways to cut classes. This skill followed me through college, where I bet I would've gotten a better education if I were actually in the classroom rather than just reading the textbook.