Today, 7am was silent.
Today, no windows resonated with the rumble of school buses.
Today the 3pm 'rush hour' convoy of those same buses will be absent.
"No more pencils, no more books, no more teachers’ dirty looks!”
Oh how I remember chanting that rhyme. The vast expanse of uninterrupted playtime stretched out before me - Summertime!
Getting up when I wanted, sometimes to just see the sunrise from the lounge chair on the back porch.
Riding my bike all over the neighbourhood, sometimes taking longer treks, farther from home just to see how far and how fast I could go (if only mother knew...probably a good thing she didn't!).
And long afternoons spent in our backyard pool, until with fingers puckered like prunes, I'd drip over to the towels laid out on the grass, to be baked dry by the sun. Then dash back in the pool again!
Life was good!
 |
| July 1972 |
Fast forward some 45+ years (FORTY-FIVE?? Are you serious? It can't be... ) to 2016 and "School's Out!" doesn't quite have the same kind of celebratory exuberance. Now, I can get up whenever I want every day. I don't bike all over the neighbourhood - 150m in one directions gets me to highway where the gravel trucks roam; 150m in the other gets me to the bottom of a quad busting, knee popping hill! And we don't have a pool in the backyard.
Still, all is not so very ho-hum humdrum in my life this day.
The strawberries are ripe for the picking...
and Canada Day sits on the doorstep.
I am so privileged to have been born where and when I was.
I am blessed to call Canada my home and native land.
"I am a Canadian!
Free to speak without fear,
Free to worship in my own way,
Free to stand for what I think right,
Free to oppose what I believe wrong,
Free to choose those who shall govern my country.
This heritage of freedom I pledge to uphold for myself and mankind."
John Diefenbaker, Canada's 13th Prime Minister, July 1, 1960.
Life is still good, very good!
Happy Canada Day, eh?
©2016 April Hoeller
I have to be honest I don't remember getting out of school for the holidays. Too long ago I guess. I am however in complete agreement about Canada. We are indeed fortunate to be here. When Pere was born a friend who is Kashmiri came to the hospital with a present and a card that welcomed him and said :"you are so lucky to be born in a country like Canada." True words then and now.
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