Not sure when the US schools have their summer holiday/vacation but ours break up tomorrow....for 6 weeks!!!! How on earth to keep 4 kids amused for 6 weeks. Luckily I only have 2 weeks off in August so my good lady will have to fight the good fight with them the rest of the time

Seriously though, if this nice weather holds we will never see them and we do have a week in Scotland to look forward to....

Yogi,

When I was working, our school always ended in mid June and the students would return in late August. My grandkids were out the end of May and go back on August 7. Understandably they are loving their vacation. My daughter/SIL and kids all went on a local cruise which was great; the kids stay in the pajamas later than usual and sleep in. I remember staying in my PJs til noon when I was on summer break.

On the other hand, my daughter won't mind when they go back to school,(as most parents I'm sure) because she (a teacher) has a couple weeks before she starts work.





TIS

Yogi, schools in the Eastern US usually end the year in the last week of June, then start the next year after Labor Day (first Monday in September). Here in the Southwest, school ends at the end of May and resumes some time in August.

I grew up in a poor/working class neighborhood in Brooklyn, so summer "vacation" meant endless games of stickball in the streets, and hanging out in the lobbies of airconditioned movie theaters until the manager chased us out.

Btw TB,

I never really was into it, but as a kid, summer on my street, the boys always played kicked the can. Do they even do that anymore?
Me, I was into jump rope and hop scotch.

Oh and all the kids in the neighborhood, would run into the house for money at the first sign of the Mr. Frosty truck.







TIS

Here in PA most schools close in the first week of June, and the kids go back the week before Labor Day. When I went, we nded after the second week of June and returned after Labor Day.

TIS, when we heard the ice cream man (could be Good Humor, Mr. Softy or sometimes Bungalow Bar, where the truck looked like a little house), we would stand in the courtyard of our apartment building and yell up to our mothers. Then our moms would throw down change wrapped in a handkerchief.

We usually played a complicated and unexplainable game called Stoopball, which involved bouncing a Spaldeen off the steps of the courtyard and each step had different points. The boys played stickball in the street, with the fire hydrant (sometimes referred to as a johnny pump for unknown reasons) as home plate. We would walk up to "the Avenue" for Italian ices or to the candy store for an egg cream or some candy.

My favorite was Bonomo Turkish Taffy. You would take it home and smash it on the stoop. It would break into lots of little pieces which you would share with your friends.

Bonomo's Turkish Taffey was invented by dentists. So were jelly apples.

Dentists had the NYC school system in their palms. First week of school, teacher would give you a "dental note." You had to visit your dentist and have him treat you. Three deadlines: first visit, in treatment, completion. Teachers also would make you lay your head on the desk and inspect you for lice, and see if you were washing behind your ears. Your parents got a note from the school if you were "not clean." Try that today...