Well, we're in August now and with school starting back in full force on Monday, I thought it was a good time to reminisce about some of my younger years and no better way to do that than where I went to school. Sha Highland Gardens Elementary. When I went to Highland Gardens, it was kindergarten through sixth grade here. We didn't have elementary school or grade school and then middle school and high school in the conventional sense like everyone else. It was K through 6. Junior high was 7, 8, and 9 and high school was 10, 11, and 12. But I remember countless mornings walking through these doors early in the morning all the way back to kindergarten, which is on this first floor. with the sun beaming in my face. The uh siren up there is our local tornado siren. And the first Wednesday of every month, they test it. So, always on the first Wednesday of every month, I thought we were all going to perish by a tornado when they sound that alarm at 3:00 in the afternoon. And I've heard it go off on for real occasions, too, in the middle of the night or late in the evening. in first grade and second grade always come in and out of the store right here. A lot of the property has changed. Uh the community center there has always been there, but the playground out front is new. These basketball courts have been here for over 30 years along with those ball fields. This playground has been added on and so is this part of the building here. All of that wasn't there when I went to school here. As a matter of fact, we had a trailer over here that the PE teachers used 20 years ago when I walked through these halls, the upstairs being the higher grades like fifth and sixth. Countless amount of times I had to come down these stairs to either leave the school or go to PE or go to lunch, etc. Uh, as a matter of fact, the building you see there with the three windows is the lunchroom here. Or at least it used to be. I haven't been inside and over 20 years. So, [Music] very path I'm walking on right now has always been here. When I was here 20 years ago, it was dirt. It was not asphalt or paved over. But I remember it just like it was yesterday because from kindergarten all the way to sixth grade, you are required to run this trail four times, which is one mile. And the older you get or the higher the grade that you're in, the faster you're required to run it in. And I always hated that part. I never liked running around this track for a whole mile. Um, and got in trouble quite a few times for slowing down or walking. But that trail follows around this dilapidated ball field, which that used to be a press box/consession stand. The dugouts, it doesn't even have a back fence anymore. They've taken it all down. But this field was used many, many countless hours for kickball. I remember the school having purchased a giant parachute and they would spread it out throughout this whole field and, you know, we did various activities with it. All in all, uh, a lot of my childhood was spent right here at these buildings. And not only on top of that, but as I played little league baseball when I was younger, we practiced here. Even though these weren't our main ball fields, we didn't play games here. This is where we practiced on these same fields where I play kickball and went to school. Reminisced about my time in school here. I think about the kids whose summer is ending and Montgomery has this crazy schedule where we actually started school this past Thursday, but they didn't do anything. So, Monday, tomorrow, they will get back to the brass tax and get down to work. And some of them will understand that summer is over. It's time to get up and go to school every day early in the morning and spend most of your day at school.