This picture is Brady Cunningham, my great-grandson. His first day at school was Wednesday and of course GG had to take a picture. He came to visit with his dad and everything was going well until dad started talking about all the things he had to do the next day.

Since Brady was born, he has been daddy’s little shadow but now he will miss all of those times to be in school. He hasn’t figured out yet that school is going to take up everything but the weekends. Kindergarten was only one-half day when my children went to school but now it’s all day. That’s quite a bit for a five-year old to adapt to but I guess it will become routine after a week or two.

I used to look at my mother’s school pictures and think they looked so funny. The girls all wore long plaid dresses with high topped shoes and long brown stockings. I knew all about the long stockings because I had worn them every winter until I was old enough to realize I was the only girl in the room wearing them. Their only redemption was at Christmas time. (They held lots more goodies and to prove it, my brother would always borrow one to hang.) Moms pictures were sepia in color and all the girls had long hair flowing down. My mother never had her hair cut until she married my dad and because she had frequent headaches he talked her into getting it cut. She had beautiful auburn hair and at the age of 21 it was cut. My grandmother didn’t approve at all for some reason. Grandma died at the age of (almost) 91 and never had her hair cut.

When I looked at my own school pictures, of course they were “modern.” But as I looked at them in comparison to the pictures my own children brought home, they were as “old fashioned” as my mother’s looked to me. It’s amazing how a generation changes in hair styles, clothing and such.

From my elders, my grandmother, my mother; through me, through my daughter, and through her, to her son, to Brady. That’s just one side of the family but all together we contributed to his first day of school. So to all the children going for the first time……..congratulations. You are on your way for a long journey of learning. From learning comes inspiration and dreams……….it all begins now.

“I open windows to see out, I open doors to go out, I open books to find out.
(Author unknown)

Essentially Esther