Column: August: The new September

Dear readers,

Remember when September meant the faint smell of freshly-sharpened Ticonderoga No. 2 pencils, apple cider, and the start of school?

Remember when Labor Day cookouts marked the end of summer?

Well, forget all that! School has already started. August is the new September.

Mr. Peabody, have your boy Sherman set the Wayback machine to the fall of 1961. The first sighting of a school bus always makes me feel like reminiscing.

School for me began after Labor Day in 1961. My parents, being members of the Greatest Generation, both had to walk to and from school. Not only was it always cold and snowing, but the journey was uphill both ways. 

I fortunately was born a Baby Boomer. A member of the first generation to have both television and rock n roll music. As I began first grade, I had not developed an appreciation for rock n roll music yet, but I did enjoy watching Captain Kangaroo on TV every day.

We lived at 1103 Shelby Street. I was going to school at St. Joe. There were several young Boomers in my neighborhood who also attended St. Joe, including Dan and Don Andrews, Jim Borel, and John and Linda Guidi.

We didn’t have to walk to school. The St. Joe bus picked us up at the northwest corner of Shelby and 4^th streets. It cost a nickel to ride the bus each way. Every day we were all lined up with our nickel in hand. If the weather was nice when school let out, sometimes I would walk home. 

The Alhambra Cigar Store was on the corner of Harrison and Broadway. It was a handy place to stop and spend my nickel I had saved from not riding the bus. After a long day at school, nothing beats a good nickel cigar on the walk home.

Just kidding. The Alhambra Cigar Store also sold penny candy and had a soda fountain. In those days a nickel could still buy a small fountain coke. I usually found some good use for my nickel on the way home.

Many nickels of the day still had an Indian on the heads side and a buffalo on the tails side. Old-timers, when describing a person, they thought was too frugal, would say, “he squeezes a nickel until the buffalo poops.”

I thought it was a funny saying but took no chances that the buffalo would poop in my pocket. 

Enough reminiscing let’s get back to the present.

A special shout out to loyal reader Beth Bean for dropping off a case of Little Debbie Oatmeal Crème Pies. 

School already starting is not the only sign of August being the new September. Shelbyville is hosting its first Fall Festival Aug. 23.

Today’s back to school photos are the Hoover boys (photo above), left to right, Johnny Danger and Adam; and the Meltzer girls (main photo, left to right), Rose, Pearl, and June.

See you all next week, same Schwinn time, same Schwinn channel.

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