One result of the "back to school" sales that have been attacking us from Out There for, it seems, at least 2 months, is that I look at the ad circulars and I get a hit from the big nostalgia hookah. The weather too is cooperating, making for slightly chilly mornings. I seem to remember every morning in September as being chilly, but even then, I think, you couldn't wear a jacket. It wasn't cool.

Of course so much has changed. The backpacks. (We didn't use those until I hit high school.) They're big enough for you to live in if somehow you would get lost in a snowstorm between school and home. (Our elementary school was right across the street (even if there was not "safety patrol" kid there and I had to walk allllll the way around. We didn't have grown-up crossing guards where Iw as.)

So yes, there's stuff we never needed (cute little computer memory drives (Think Geek has ones that look like legos and Swiss army knives). I'm jealous of the stuff they MAKE for lockers now - a mirror that's magnetic - not that I was ever the kind of girl who primped, but it's cool and it's $1. I don't recall having a pencil box but I did have pencil cases.

What got me the other day was, I admit it, book covers. Do you remember those? Does this sound dopey or what? I remember making book covers from grocery bags, (you could write and draw on them) and I have a clear fragment of memory of blue and white (Everything in Connecticut seems to be b&w) covers from Mark Twain School that we could use. Shiny ones, laminated. And the sound of your locker door opening (ok, I'm sliding around in time a bit.) And just the exhilaration and fear of heading to school that first day or week. Three ring notebooks (covered in blue cloth) and folders and book report covers. I don't recall buying trendy "star of the week" stuff but I must have at times. I don't remember acquiring too much pink stuff, but I must have, at times, mustn't I? But it's the image of folding down the corner of the book cover that's been transporting me. Not a particular year or age, just the memory of cool autumn nights, cool autumn mornings and getting ready. And no fabric, no camo, no stretchy stuff for my books. Pass the monkey stickers, would you?

And if you don't remember how to do it? Yes, you too can discover a new website, ehow.com, that offers how-to advice and will help you remember how to size the cover and how you too can cover your textbooks