I know that my friends across the pond have a way to go yet, but over here the summer holidays are well and truly underway (much to the relief of a certain 14 year old boy in our household!)
Yesterday was the last day of term and the '8th Grade Promotion' ceremony at Ethan's school. Essentially this means that providing their final grade average has met the required level (still no idea what that actually is!) they graduate from Middle School, ready to start High School at the start of the next school year in August (and unlike the UK, the system here can require students to repeat a year if they do not meet the grade averages required ... gulp). Thankfully, this was not the case for anybody in Ethan's year and everybody received their 'certificate of promotion' at a school ceremony on Friday morning ... held outside on the sports field ... in the blazing sun ... and 90 degree heat ... **oh good**! As we sat on the toasty metal bleachers **whose bloody idea was that?!** and after 20 minutes 'quite warm' was something of an understatement, the 8th Grade finally filed out onto the field, all looking incredibly smart. I have to say I did have considerably more sympathy for the boys who were instructed to wear 'dress pants, dress shirt and tie' (some even took it upon themselves to add a jacket - a decision which I expect they instantly regretted as soon as they stepped onto the field!).
Ethan even made it onto the Merit Roll, an achievement which he should be really proud of considering he was thrown into a completely new school system just 9 months ago, where he knew nobody and where classes and subject matter are completely different to those he was used to in the UK (including his 'American History' class where he and his tutor can often be found engaging in some good humored banter whenever battles against the British come up :D). Great job Ethan!
After an hour of speeches and the presentation of all the certificates (thank goodness it is a small school as any longer and I think I would have spontaneously combusted) it was all over for the kids and school was out for the summer! **that would make a good song title wouldn't it? Oh wait ...** Of course, nobody was more pleased than Ethan who is looking forward to 10 weeks of lie-ins (as am I quite frankly) and generally doing not a lot until the middle of August when he will be a Freshman in High School **eek! how did that happen?!** He has a couple of weeks Summer Camp (where it will come as no surprise that he has chosen to do Media Arts again, lol) and we have a couple of weeks family vacation time over the next couple of months, but other than that he has it all stretched out in front of him! What a wonderful feeling ...
Can you still remember that luscious feeling as you woke up on the first day of your school summer holidays at 14 (thankfully still being a year too young to qualify for a summer job)? I can. Mum and Dad both worked and so I had the house to myself. I seem to recall spending large amounts of time lounging on my bed (probably because it was raining) flicking through old copies of Look In (aargh! I've got that bloody "Look out for Look In!" jingle stuck in my head now) and Jackie and mooning over David Essex (I was never really into the other David [Cassidy] or Donny) and listening to my Hot Hits albums (purchased with saved up pocket money from Woolworths) on the portable record player I had in my bedroom and which I still have somewhere. Kids TV was usually only on from 3pm - 6pm as a rule (who else remembers being off sick from school and having to watch the bloody races from Haydock because there was nothing else on? Oh. Just me then), but in the school holidays it was on from 9am!! The excitement! .... getting onboard with the Double Deckers ... "oh Donut!!"; singing along to the Banana Splits ... tra-la-la, tra-la-la-la, tra-la-la, tra-la-la-laaaa (your'e welome); Dick Dastardly & Mutley still trying to 'catch that pigeon' and the Ant Hill Mob running like mad up that hill in Wacky Races. "Size of an elephant!" ... no idea what show that was from, just remember shouting it at various intervals during the summer holidays! Lol. Then of course there was Magpie with the lovely Mick Robertson and best of all Tiswas (technically a Saturday morning delight but often a 'Special' was a treat in the holidays!)
When it was not actually raining, my friends and I could usually be found hanging out by the roundabout down at the local park trying to tune our transistor radios in to Radio One so that we could listen to the Radio One Roadshow or going for long walks in the woods and fields where we lived (a small village in the Cheshire countryside ... or 'up North' as it is usually referred to!) with my friends, collecting blackberries from the hedgerows in washed out margarine tubs which would usually be turned into a Blackberry and Apple pie and eaten after dinner on Sunday (and for my Southern friends, yes, this was dinner at dinner time (usually 1pm and there was no Yorkshire Pudding unless it was beef!), followed by tea at tea time (hopefully while Song of Praise was still on so I didn't have to suffer that before The Good Life came on ... oooh, I did love a bit of Tom & Barbara ... and of course the formidable Margot :)
Oh I feel proper nostalgic now! Might have to go and make myself a prawn cocktail followed by Steak Diane and a black forest gateau for pudding (no, not dessert ... pudding #youcantakeagirloutofthenorth). Oh ... wait ... hang on ... according to the trusty Days of the Year site it's National Hamburger Day today ... would you Adam and Eve it?! Right, well, it would be rude not to wouldn't it? "Mine's with cheese and grilled onions ...hold the pickle!"
TTFN
Bev x
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