The morning is damp and chilly. Rain is predicted for today and for the next few days. Tomorrow is my busy day. Today is whatever I want it to be. I’m leaning toward a relaxed and quiet day at home. Outside is uninviting. I’m plenty comfortable right now.

My first school was old. It was built in 1910. It is still used today. The outside is brick. I always think most schools should be brick. The inside of the building had, in my day, wood everywhere. The wood shined on the tops of railings and the tops of the stairs. The stairs had a bit of a sag in the middle. I used to love standing on the bottom floor and looking up and seeing the winding staircase all the way to the top floor.

We outgrew that school so the parish built a second school. The two schools became forever the old school and the new school. I checked the parish history today, and it said the new school was erected in 1961. My memories differ. When the new school opened, I was in the fifth grade. It was 1957. I finished the sixth, seventh and eighth grades in the new school and graduated in 1961. The dates don’t jibe.

I love old buildings. That first school of mine was so neat and so beautiful, it started my love for old buildings. I live around many of them. Sometimes in the summer I take tours of the old houses. I’m always a bit embarrassed when I say Dennis to the docent’s question,”Where are all of you from?” I love to ride on 6A. It doesn’t matter up or down cape or the season. Many of the houses are on the historic register, especially the captains’ houses. The shops along the road are unique. I have a few favorites where I usually stop. I often take a ride on Route 6A. It is one of my isn’t life grand places.

I haven’t left the cape in a while. Every week three days have bookings: two uke and one PT. They break up the week. They make me feel busy. This week I also have a doctor’s appointment, just a regular check-ups, in Hyannis. That makes me really busy. I’m not a fan of busy.

I admit to a certain amount of lethargy. Today I am a sloth. I let the dogs out early this morning and then went back to bed for another hour. The dogs joined me after they came in and found me.

I only got one newspaper this morning. I read it slowly. The Cape Cod Times was missing. Deja vu? I hope not.

I have a quiet week. Only one day is marked on the calendar, Wednesday. I have a strumming class and PT, one right after the other. I’ll have to nap before the big day.

Christmas vacation ended on January 2nd every year. I think it was always a cloudy day. We walked to school just as we did every day. Nothing had changed. The walk was on the same streets it always was. The trees were still bare. It was quiet for most of the walk until we got closer to the schoolyard where kids were running around or just talking in groups, all waiting for the nun to ring the bell, to end Christmas vacation officially.

Saturday matinee at the movie theater uptown was our only established entertainment beyond ourselves. My mother would give us enough money for a ticket and some candy. The key was to buy long lasting candy, to last through a cartoon, a newsreel and a movie. The one movie I remember seeing there was The Wizard of Oz because of the jaw dropping awe I remember when Munchkin Land turned all color.

January has never been an exciting month. When I was a kid, each day had a routine. We had no holidays off from school. The weather was often iffy with icy rain and even snow. After school, most afternoons were spent inside watching TV. I remember loving Superman, and I knew all of the songs for each day of the week on the Micky Mouse Club. Talent Friday was my least favorite day. Supper was some sort of meat, ground beef was big on the menu, potatoes, usually mashed, and a vegetable or two. If there were cookies left, we’d grab a few for dessert. We’d watch TV after dinner then early to bed on a school night. Day after day after day yet I was never bored. Not once did I bemoan my fate. I liked every day.