Back To School

It's that time of year again. Kids every-where are either feeling elated or dejected as they ready to go back to school.
I'm not going back to school, but I did succumb to the fever a week ago when Kathryn and I went shopping in West Des Moines. After our fun lunch at HuHot we went a few doors down to Office Depot.
It is extremely difficult for me to resist buying notebooks, pens, journals, sketch books, even crayons - even when I know I may never use them. I had been looking for the Cafe Couleurs Sharpies since reading about them in a Tea With Friends blog. I have no sense that I will ever use all of them - I just coveted owning them. Same thing with the composition notebook - it was only fifty cents. Surprisingly I held myself to purchasing just one!


I'm not sure what the draw to these items is for me. Maybe it does go back to my child hood and the pleasure and excitement of getting new supplies in readiness for the start of school. It was one time other than Christmas that it was o.k. to spend money on us. Funny I don't feel the need to buy a new outfit, shoes or pair of jeans, too - just the pencils, pens and notebooks.

Kari & Preston's father always took them shopping for their school supplies. They would come home with boxes of pencils, packets of pens and enough spiral notebooks to last the entire school year and then some. I know they both still have the same trouble I do resisting buying new pens and notebooks.




When I was in grade school, we had to purchase our school books. Usually at the end of the school year we would try to buy books from Virginia Vogel. She was one grade ahead of me and her books were always in good condition.
If for some reason we couldn't get hers, we could go to the back of Lauvstad's Drug Store where Mrs. Lauvstad had a selection of used school books. Families all over the county could sell their used books to her and she would resell them. Some of those books were very misused. I hated having to buy a book that was beat up, written in, pages torn. I always wanted to get my books as soon as possible when the chance of getting almost new ones was greater.
If Lauvstad's prices were comparable to the dime store's, we might buy our pencils, paste, crayons and Big Chief tablets while there. Remember watching "Walton's Mountain" when John Boy got the package of Big Chief tablets and some pencils for Christmas? That's the way I feel about pens and notebooks.

The picture above shows our Jasper #2 students in 1955. Left to right, first row is Carolyn Yearington, Doug Brown, Doug Olive, Gary Jackson, Byron Kapple and Susan Brown. In the middle row is Betty Lynam, Edward Mitchell and Marylin Yearington. Back row: Fred Mitchell, Ed Talty, Virginia Vogel, Mrs. Vera Kimball (teacher) and Ramona Lynam. Ed Talty, Betty and Marylin are now deceased.


My little brother, Les, was among the last students to attend Jasper #2 before it closed. He went to a half year of Kindergarten there.

Here he is pictured in the doorway before the school house was sold and torn down. The building looks in pretty sad shape. I don't think any of us remember it that way. We just remember the fun we had there, the friendships, the pleasure of moving up to the big desks in the back and the excellent educational start we received.