First day at schoolers

One of the great rites of passage. The supermarket full of mothers and fathers stopping off to buy their 'first day at schoolers' a treat. Pristine, too long in the sleeve, blazers much in evidence. The local school has eye popping crimson as its colour. Some children are clearly thrilled at the thought of going to school. Others have that quivering lip ' I'm going to the guillotine ' look on their faces. Many of the parents try to pretend that they're taking all of this in their stride but some of the mothers faces hint that they might be in need of a dash of gin with their ten o'clock coffee. At the check out we hear one six year old brother tell his four year old sibling that there will be injections. That's enough to push the poor we chap into psychosis territory. There is a 'wailing'.

Our first traffic jam of the season. The university staff are back at work after the long summer. Post graduate students can be seen wandering around the place trying to get their bearings. Today is the day when across the country students who took their 'A' levels in June get to know their results. This gives the administrative staff a tsunami of work allocating accommodation , checking grades and dealing with the unlucky ones who didn't quite make it. 

Amidst it all golfers on the early inbound flights from the States continue to arrive at hotels that aren't yet ready for them. They park their clubs on the pavement and head off in search of a caffeine infusion. Those in the know head off to the club house for a shower and a bacon roll.  A group of Spanish tourists arrive in a mini bus and add to the congestion on the pavement. 

We follow a council workman heading along the street marking potholes that need to be repaired before term starts. Just one of many small routines that go unremarked on as the town settles into term time.

 A lot of dross is being written but some quality analysis can be found . This was good  :https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/what-the-heck-happened-in-coffee-county-georgia and this made me think about 2012 :https://www.theintrinsicperspective.com/p/what-the-heck-happened-in-2012