100th Day of School

Back in the Dark Ages when I went to school and we had ink wells, carried our lunches in tins, cinched our books together with a leather strap,all the classes met in one room heated by a pot bellied stove, and my nemesis was a girl named Nellie (ok, maybe I'm confusing my history with Little House on the Prairie, but it was so long ago, I can't remember), the only day of school we celebrated was the 181st, which was the first day of summer vacation.  Now, there is a trend to celebrate the 100th day of school.  Why?  I have no clue.  Not like it means the school year is half over.  Not like they get the day off.  But it seems to be a rip roaring success with the youngsters.

At any rate, the Sound & the Fury's school decided it would be fun this year to have the kids dress up like 100 year old people, because we all know that nothing says PAR-TAY like arthritis and glaucoma.  The girls excitedly raided my closet for gear, which is what every 30 something mom wants to know--that her wardrobe rivals that of her great-grandmother.

Skirts, knee high socks (THESE belonged to the girls--not me), sweaters, some frumpy jewelry and they were almost set.  To make it more believable, we added baby powder to their hair to gray it out (irony--I'm constantly covering my gray to black it out).  To complete the look, I took gray eyeliner and drew on wrinkles.  I knew exactly where to place the faux lines, because I study my real lines every morning in the mirror.  When it was done, they looked a lot like I do on a daily basis, only without the red lipstick.

Wonder if they'll have parties in their classrooms?  Prune juice and Geritol for everybody, followed by a long nap.