Rant #1,974: School Is In

How was your Labor Day weekend?

Yes, I actually had Labor Day off, and that is why this Rant is the first of the week.

This is a rare occurrence, as I have worked probably 16 of the past 21 Labor Days, and worked on the holiday last year.

Anyway, my family and I spent the long weekend visiting loved ones in the hospital, eating out, having a barbecue, watching baseball and several movies on TV, and pretty much doing not much of anything when we had the time to do so, which wasn't much.

Our son worked on Sunday and Monday, so one member of the family did uphold the tradition of working on Labor Day.

And now, at least in my part of the world, everything goes back to normal.

People return from their summer vacations, the kids go back to school, and the traffic returns to the roads with everyone trying to get from Point A to Point B.

And I am still stuck like glue where I am, but you already know a lot about that.

Looking at popular culture, there are songs heralding the end of the school year, like Alice Cooper's "School's Out" and and Gary U.S. Bonds' "School Is Out."

But Bonds also added the other side of the equation with "School Is In," the title of this Rant which hit No. 28 in October 1961.

To show you how much people prefer it when school is out, Bond's "School Is Out" hit No. 5 in July 1961.

(And for the record, Alice Cooper's "School's Out" hit No. 7 in 1972.)

But I do remember the beginning of school like it was yesterday.

Before "Back To School" became an actual buying season, in the days when my sister and I went to school, my mother would rush out and buy us our notebooks, spirals, pencils and whatever else we needed a couple of weeks before school began, and my sister and I were always prepared for school.

And honestly, by the end of the summer--after camp and doing pretty much what we wanted to do for a few months--my sister and I were ready to go back to school, ready to be challenged again, ready to be occupied during the day and when doing homework once again.

We also had the added burden of having to go to Hebrew school to prepare for our bar and bat mitzvahs--my sister ended up opting for a Sweet Sixteen party instead, but I toughed it out because I was not given a choice--so between regular school and Hebrew school, our days were as full as could be.

And like today, I think I worked for the weekend, when after doing my Friday homework, I could relax, socialize with my friends, and do pretty much what I wanted to do.

But after Saturday and Sunday, it was back to the grind.

I think that type of schedule prepared me well for my adult schedule, which has pretty much been the same 9-5 or 5:30 grind my entire adult life.

So now, with millions of kids back to school, their personal schedules will hopefully prepare them for their adult schedules, and the move from going to school to going to work will almost be seamless.

So you see ... you do learn something in school after all.