The School Store

This year, with both kids in one school, I have time in my schedule to be a part of their community. So I'm volunteering at the school store. For a couple of hours every other week, I hang in a haven of school supplies, eccentric erasers, tiny treasures, and awesome individuals. I love it. 

What do I love about it?

1.       Being in a place where no two kids dress alike. None of them. They’re individuals in every sense.

2.       Watching two best friends “split” a dime, buying a five-cent eraser each.

3.       Where else can you teach five preteens how to open a fan, Regency-style? And then have a discussion of how lucky we are that women can speak their minds these days, not just wave their fans…

4.       They’re good kids—I generally know the prices, but they tell me the right cost each time.

5.       The kids like my corny puns.

6.       I learn things like what type of lead a Papermate Sharpwriter takes and how to install it.

7.       The smell of coins clutched in a grubby fist. No, I really don’t love that smell, just what it means—the saving, the planning, the precious coins exchanged for long-desired treasure.

8.       Someone put a bumper sticker on the school golf cart. “Dissent is the highest form of patriotism. Howard Zinn”

9.       I get to Google things like the rarest Pokemon card in the world (1998 Pikachu Illustrator card) and if it’s worth $2 million (no, just $50-100,000).

10.   I sold a bouncy ball, a bag of marbles and a spiky rubber bracelet to someone who needed to make a model of a plant cell.

And

11.   Because you know it has to go to eleven… My kids like to see me there!