SCHOOOOOOOL'S OUT FOR SUMMER !

theebmonique · Post by **theebmonique** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 4:39 pm

Thank you Mr. Cooper for those wonderful and timely lyrics ! While I do dearly love my life's work, the summer break always comes at a time when it is sorely needed...for teachers and students BOTH !!!

My summer plans are to tend to my flowers, my new pear tree in the backyard, my 'crops', my children...and of course the annual pilgrimage to Lizzie's.

My front porch:

My pear tree:

My first pear !:

My watermelon & spaghetti squash:

My pumpkins:

My cucumber & zucchini:

And last but NOT least...my children (Tequi...short for Tequila Rose - the youngest girl, Nupie - the only boy...for the Inupiat eskimos, and Annie, the alpha female...for Anaktuvuk Alaska). Also...Tequi is a certified therapy dog.

Tracy...

Stefani · Post by **Stefani** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 4:50 pm

Congratulations on the summer! And I LOVE your dogs! How perfectly wonderful they look. Growing veggies in the tub is priceless!

I bet you also have a pile of summer books to read too, huh?

Allen · Post by **Allen** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 5:15 pm

School is finally out for my kids on the 7th of June. They had to go a little later due to the amount of snow days they had. I am taking a summer class so school isn't quite out for me yet. It wont be out for me until June 30th. I can't wait! I am sooo ready for a break

.

Liz Crouthers · Post by **Liz Crouthers** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 6:05 pm

thank God for the summer I would have lost my mind If not for summe,

now I can do anything like sleep for 12 hrs straight
cause I just got up.

Kat · Post by **Kat** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 6:50 pm

So Tracy, besides jumping out of airplanes and heliocopters over 150 times, you also grew a record-busting pumpkin last year?

My roommate and I used to grow lettuce and squash in dresser drawers on the roof of our apartment building in Boston Back Bay! Your tub looks great!

theebmonique · Post by **theebmonique** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 7:59 pm

LOL...I DO have some summer reading planned. My plan is to start with the witness statements...then the inquest....and read all of the available transcripts...right through to the end of the trial. I was able to print out some at school before I left for the summer, since I will be using part of it for a project next year. The big printing out job of the prelim (purchased from Stefani) and the trial vols...nearly 2100 pages...may have to be done at home. But no matter where I print it out...I have to get it done.

Well, it was two years ago that one of my pumpkins that I grow in that tiny space between my neighbor's driveway and mine...ended up being just over 100 lbs ! While that isn't exactly record-breaking, as the worlds record is over 1200 lbs...it IS amazing because I grow my pumpkins in a space not nearly big enough...according to the experts. I have grown bathtub veggies before..it is way fun. I put the cukes and zukes in the tub, to help lessen their "prolificness'...yet hopefully increase their size. I put the watermelon & spaghetti squash in a place where I usually have flowers because that spot gets great sunlight. I suspect that somewhat of a fruit & vegetable garden in my front yard will look a bit odd, but when I grow lovely, giant fruits and veggies...people will stop laughing. They laughed the first time I did the pumpkins....until they saw the 100 lb-er !

I will post garden updates now and then...LOL.

Tracy...

Kat · Post by **Kat** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 9:21 pm

The pics are great! Thanks!

FairhavenGuy · Post by **FairhavenGuy** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 10:05 pm

Congrats on Summer Vacation, Tracy!

Emily will be finishing up her half-day public preschool on June 22. Full day kindergarten begins next year. Then she will be in the very same elementary school that her great-grandfather, her grandfather and her father all attended. (We haven't traveled much out of the ol' neighborhood, have we?)

Em loved school and she had a wonderful teacher.

Audrey · Post by **Audrey** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 10:44 pm

The Martin6 are out of school as of Wednesday.

Alax leaves tomorrow afternoon for Paris and then on Wednesday, he and his Uncle Luc' and his cousin Michel leave for 10 days in Cairo Egypt.

Zack starts babeball Monday.

Joey is in Little League.

The Trips begin swimming lessons....

I leave for Chicago on Wednesday evening and do not return until the following Monday...

Thayne takes every summer off... (He actually takes all school holidays off) the darling thing..

I have the AC on today!

theebmonique · Post by **theebmonique** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 12:07 am

Chris,

I can hardly wait to meet you and your family when we come to FR this summer ! Emily will love full day Kindergarten. I have a friend who teaches that very thing. It's a very good program.

Auds,

Your family is very adorable...always active and on the go !

Tracy...

augusta · Post by **augusta** » Mon Jun 06, 2005 12:17 pm

Thanks for sharing the pictures, Tracy. Any Jennings papers in that bath tub?
I admire your gardening talents, as I have none. Not much is better than home grown veg's.

My son doesn't get out of school till June 17. They were re-doing the school parking lot and weren't done in time for school to open in late August, so they didn't start till after Labor Day (which was when I always started as a kid). I am looking forward to school being out. He is such a joy.

That is so cool, Fairhaven Guy, that so many generations have gone to the same school there.

Audrey, I don't think your family has enough to do this summer.

Susan · Post by **Susan** » Mon Jun 06, 2005 8:34 pm

I have friends who are teachers that are counting down the days, one is already off for the summer. I've always kind of wondered why students got off for the summer and thought it had something to do with the 1800s and people needing their children to help with the crops. After reading this, what I heard originally didn't make any sense then:

"Why does the American school year start in September and end in June? It's something of a mystery. Did children once "bring in the harvest" on the family farm all summer in the distant rural past?

Historians at Old Sturbridge Village, a living history museum that recreates an 1830s New England farming village, say not. According to the web site and schoolmistress there, farm children went to school from December to March and from mid-May to August. Adults and children alike helped with planting and harvesting in the spring and fall."

More info on this summer vacation visit this site: http://www.infoplease.com/spot/schoolyear1.html

So, the question is still there, why is school off for the summer months, anyone?

Tracy, your kids are adorable!!! Are they all still puppies?

FairhavenGuy · Post by **FairhavenGuy** » Mon Jun 06, 2005 10:14 pm

We have an original one-room district school, built in 1828, in restored condition in Fairhaven. When it was built, and through the 1840s at least, school was held there in Winter and Summer sessions, with breaks in the Spring and Fall for planting and harvesting, just as Susan learned from the Sturbridge site.

By 1885 when Satandard Oil Co. millionaire Henry H. Rogers built the first large, brick schoolhouse in town, the school year ended in June and resumed in September. I'm sure if I went through all of the Fairhaven School Committee annual reports from the 1800s I could pinpoint the year of the switch here and maybe get an explanation as to why it was done. Sorry, I don't have the time to read through 45 years of reports right now. . .