The dogs on Main Street howl 'cause they understand

Where I grew up, everybody went to public school, unless you were part of the tiny minority that attended Gate of Heaven Catholic School. There was only the question of which elementary school you went to, which was based on some strange arbitrary dividing line.

For the first four years I rode a bus that took about 10 minutes. For the next two years I walked about a mile to school each way, on a busy road that never would be allowed today. For the record, it was not uphill both ways, just coming home.

This was back before a subpar educational system began creating a caste-like system of the haves and the have nots.

At least that’s how it seems to me. But maybe it started long before that and we were united in our ignorance and didn’t know any better.

But all of that is another story.

School ends this week, and this is, of course, the obvious musical accompaniment to mark the occasion. But this is another good choice that was also from a time before summers were structured and jam packed with play dates, endless camps and nonstop organized activities.