Let’s ramble a bit about how different the whole back-to-school picture is now.

Way back when during my early grade years in Winnipeg and then Toronto, how did we manage without backpacks? How did we carry all our stuff?

Sometimes today, a young child seems to be totally encumbered, outsized by a backpack bigger than the backpacker. Textbooks, binders, clothing and perhaps some sports stuff and a musical instrument.

The backpacks of today are not simply utilitarian. Stylish and colourful, often decorated with a trendy logo or a famous face.

Lunch? I cannot recall what Mom prepared for my lunch, but it was no doubt nutritious and included the main food groups. And this wouldn’t have included any fast-food delights.

Weird as it might seem now, our houses while I was in kindergarten to Grade 6 were always within a reasonable walking distance of the school. Not a lot of “working moms” in those days.

A favourite family story was when Mom called out to my Grade 5 walking pal, Bill Armour, “Bill, would you like to have lunch with us today?” He quickly and politely responded, “What are you having?” At least, that’s the legend as it lives on. (With a tip of the hat to Gordon Lightfoot.)

Not that long ago, may I remind everyone? As I ramble along this week, the entire back-to-school phenomenon is so radically different than it was back in the 1950s.

Yellow school buses? Not even a factor back then in Canadian school districts where we lived. Now, a logistical miracle that inconceivably transpires every school day morning.

Imagine looking down from above at North America at about 7:30 a.m. on a school day. Of course, we didn’t have computers back then, or handheld communication devices illustrating the routes and current positions of our bus. Our lives have become so incomprehensively over-complicated.

And huge shoutouts now to the unsung heroes: school bus drivers and crossing guards. The responsibility, the split shifts and the often compromised weather conditions. How the term “snow day” has evolved? And I haven’t even mentioned the shocking rudeness and incompetence of some car drivers. Please.

Rambling just a bit more, as my deadline approaches, how about before-school and after-school activities? Partly due to the cost of car insurance, not a lot of high school kids have their own cars now.

I become totally flummoxed trying to figure out the logistics and expenses of education today. How do we possibly pay for our schools? To emphasize my query, how do we possibly pay for our schools?

So, I have gone on about the mysteries of education today.

Let me take a challenging big step from the old Parliament Oak Public School site, across King Street to Veterans Memorial Park. Near Branch 124 of our Royal Canadian Legion

Rambling this week, I am reminded that our town really is a small town. With a big basket of goings on and issues.

Happily, and after a year or two off from a sport I love, I am back playing tennis. Patiently, with a strong dose of timidness. Staying vertical used to be expected, but now, no chasing drop shots or lobs. Feet can get tangled up, and down one tumbles for the dreaded fall.

Let me propose a rhyming headline for these words about my current Monday evening Big Hitters and Thursday evening Top Guns men’s leagues — “Familiar faces, more braces, and less aces.”

So great to be seeing George Schachtschneider (I have done my best on this spelling), Derrick Penman, Mac MacSween and Rick Sherk again. And Shan Jain, Jim “ Willlam Makepeace” Thackray and so many other determined athletes.

All of us are a tad older, but still familiar faces. More braces on more knees and elbows, and less aces being served up.

My weekly deadline has arrived, so it’s time for me to ramble off.

Try to be kinder to each other, especially with the upcoming election campaign upon us.