Both Sides Now

I can see both sides of the argument here...

In Baltimore County, Maryland, USA, we can offer you any kind of weather you want, except for monsoons.  We have high heat in summer and cold cold in winter and lots of rain and storms and blizzards, thunder and lightning.  All of it comes in the course of a year.

This is an area in the mid-Atlantic region where we often start baseball season in football-style weather, and vice-versa. 

So it's no wonder that starting school means it's going to be hot outside.  Whether or not you wait for Labor Day to pass, you can count on a few hot days in September or even October.

A warm spell after the first frost is known as "Indian summer."

A guy in a feather headdress with a tomahawk and tom-tom, trying to get a lift alongside the highway, is known as "Indian thumber."

I had to get that out of my system.

And not a minute too soon.  

As I was saying before I rudely interrupted myself, I can see both sides of the school heat problem.  Schools were not air conditioned at all in my day AND we had to wear long pants and real shirts.  Today people head for the classroom in tank tops and shorts and flip flops.  Of course, the only source of heat in the room back in the Fab 50s and Sweltering 60s was the air pump for the aquarium where Splash, the class fish, swam all day.  Now the classroom is full of computers, monitors, printers and I don't know what-all else, producing a lot of heat.  The county is working hard to get all the schools outfitted with air conditioning. 37 schools now don't have it, and they have to close when the heat index is at or above 90°.

Dear old golden rule days

Meanwhile, our governor, not content to stick to state business, is said to be trying to make sure that all schools remain closed through Labor Day. His close friend, the tax collector, says that allowing people to keep vacationing through the first Monday in September will produce untold riches for the state in tax revenue, although his office is the one that declares a certain week to be tax-free so that people can avoid paying taxes on tank tops, shorts, flip flops, computers, monitors, printers and I don't know what-all else in August.

Whenever the school year begins, the kids have to be exposed to 180 days of education.  Start later, get out later.

When I grew too tall for the blanket I slept with as a child, and the coverlet would no longer cover my shoulders, I came up with the brilliant plan of cutting 12" off the bottom and sewing that to the top to cover my noggin.  

Hey, wait a minute!