Bookish

“Mom!  It’s so unfair.”

“What’s that?"

“Just when we are moving back to San Diego, I am even more Ithaca-ish!”

“What do you mean, because you are wearing shorts and a t-shirt to school and it’s raining outside?”

“No, don’t you see this?”  He waves a knap sack around.

“Your back pack?”

“It’s a book bag!  I am totally into reading now!”

If you run into kids in Ithaca with down time, they typically are reading.  In doctors’ office waiting rooms, at sibling’s music lessons, at the airport.  In most other cities, the kids we know or see have iTouches or (yes, it’s true!) iPads they are pressing away on.  When we were at the airport in Florida last February, I noticed entire families had their heads bent over their hand helds.  I remember thinking I liked the days when kids fought with each other and moms had to embarrass themselves by yelling at them in public.

“Well, you can be the cool Ithaca kid and set a new trend in San Diego when we move back.”

“You mean carrying a book bag around?”

“Yeah, reading in your spare time.  It’s old school.  We’ll bring it back, like white t-shirts and Levi’s.”

He looked at me and just laughed as he lovingly nestled his new passion on his back.