Back to School.....

One of my fave pieces of furniture in my house is a table I designed years ago and a friend handmade for me. It is a mission style coffee table that has a hinge opening so you can put things inside that display through glass. I wanted to have things on my coffee table but did not want to constantly be taking them off to use it, etc. I have fun each month decorating it....

This past week the whole city has been in Back to School fever. Every commercial, every store display....it is the buzz....and it is so fun to see the little kids with their lists get their supplies and new clothes. It was a fun time for me when I was in school too.

In grade school there were very few malls in Phoenix so my mom would take my sister and I downtown for back to school shopping. This was a BIG deal. My sister and I would wear our little white gloves and dresses and we would shop with mom and have lunch at the Newberrys where you sat on these stools and ordered wonderful things like french fries and grilled cheese sandwiches. My sister and I would pick out our basics, which always included a new crinoline slip. After we shopped all day we would get to have warm nuts from a machine (also from Newberrys) and head home to hang up and play with our new threads. (I always hung up my clothes, my sister was the kind of throw it on the floor girl).

When my kids were in first in school I dressed Kristen in smocked dresses with big bows in her hair and Adam in colored shirts and ironed creases in his pants and I matched their outfits in color coordination.....along came grade school and there were malls everywhere and everything was surf related...Sun Diego....KFive....Roxy....all fun and bright and they were just as excited. They always got new backpacks (unheard of in my day) neon colored markers and glue that was colored.......

What I would also do for my friends kids and sometimes my nieces and nephews is have a back to school bbq right before Labor Day - kids only, no adults. We would play games and then they would win school supplies, but it was just the fun of being together with them that made it festive.

The grandsons are a couple of years away from Back to School but I was feeling nostalgic yesterday and decided to decorate the tablescape with Back to School theme. I have 2 yellow school buses and I went to the store and got new pencils and crayons and bright folders as a base and then put old school pictures of us and the kids all around. I even found my 1st grade class picture and I am going to have to tag some of my friends on Facebook with this one! I even have a school book that was my dad's in there - it is from the 1920's.

I am thinking about finding some random kid and taking him/her to get some back to school clothes just for the warm fuzzy feelings. I would probably end up on Americas Most Wanted or the 11pm news so I probably won't.

What feelings do 'Back To School' invoke in you? New beginnings? Favorite old memories?