Come with me today as I reminisce on days gone by when it was time for back to school shopping. Later I’ll talk about my upcoming FALL HAUL and I’ll wrap up the blog by looking ahead to Back to School shout outs. Maybe I won’t look ahead and enjoy what’s left of Summer 2023.
August is a month without any major holidays. The Fourth of July is over and Labor Day marks the official end of summer. However, it’s a month for county fairs (the last fun thing for kids to do before they go back to school). It’s also time to plan for the first day of school, which falls at the end of August. I’m old enough to remember when it was after Labor Day. All the major department stores have deals going on right now with clothes, shoes, school supplies. Everything you need to be prepared and to stand out at the start of the new school year.
Today I’m going to look back on my experiences with back to school shopping. When I was in school, Walmart wasn’t as big and Target wasn’t in our area yet. Therefore, we always hit up Greengate (remember them?) and Westmoreland Mall, as well as K-Mart, Hills, and Ames (remember them?). Remember how K-Mart and Hills had layaway? We always made out very good on our school shopping adventures.
I was lucky to grow up in the ’90’s and am shocked and amazed at how styles have changed over the years. The ’80’s were a different beast altogether, in the clothing and in the hair. I remember going through a phase during my sophomore year where I wore Hawaiian shirts. I got the inspiration from Seinfeld and “The Raincoats” episode from Season 5. That Easter during my freshman year I actually got a very flowery shirt. Now all I needed was a lei. I ran right into tenth grade with that style. I think I even started a trend at the time. In my college years, I switched to more casual polo shirts with sports logos on them, and khakis. I was kind of nerdy-looking back in the day.
Even though I made out good on my purchases, there was usually one article of clothing that I missed out on that everyone else had. I was a trendsetter but I wanted to fit in with everyone else. I tried to reason with my mom but she said no and I left feeling disappointed.
FALL HAUL
Recently I went on a shopping spree online at oldnavy.com. I bought some Halloween tops with pumpkins and ghosts on them, as well as a sweater. I went online again and bought some overalls there as well. I’m looking forward to showing off more of my new outfits and starting to make plans for Fall. I did a fashion blog recently and modeled my new shirts. I’m excited to put things together for all the upcoming events I have going on in my life. I have some ideas for what to bring for our fall family reunion this October. I will save that for a future blog, however.
Back to School Shoutouts
In 2018, I posted back to school shoutouts on social media for schools in the Pittsburgh area, as well as in Westmoreland County. I did the same for local colleges as well, including Slippery Rock and IUP. It gained a lot of popularity the first year so I brought it back for 2019. Unfortunately, it was shelved in 2020 because of COVID.
After much consideration, I will once again be giving schools a holler. Look for my back to school shoutouts starting the night of August 20 as the upcoming week will see classes start back up. Look for a weather forecast as well and know if you’ll need an umbrella for the rain, or a light jacket to stay warm at the bus stop.
In closing, I have three questions for you. Did you look forward to going back to school? What cool school supplies did you own? What was your favorite subject in school? Boom, Table Topics questions!
Stylish 🍒 