You remember the first day of school. New clothes. New pencils. Fresh packs of filler paper and the pungent odor of plastic-bound three-ring binders and fresh ink.

No matter what your age, you can always remember the butterflies and the backpacks, the calculators and the cafeteria food.

It being August in Kentucky this morning it was 80 degrees Fahrenheit at 7 o’clock. The scene here is the first First Day of School for young Trasimond, class of 2023 and kindergartener extraordinaire.

The class of 2023. Wait — can that be right? It sounds more like a science fiction movie than something that applies to this little scoot, standing there with a Pop-Tart in his hand.

I have the distinction of having three children enrolled in the public schools this year, and naturally enough, they’re spread out all over this end of the county. Trassie joins the march of public education in elementary; Christopher toils as an eighth grader; and Claire is in full sophomoric glory at the high school.

Would it be too much to ask that all schools start at the same time? Yes. Yes it would. Elementary begins at 7:45 am, high school at 8:30 and middle school at 9:05! Fortunately, Claire can ride the bus and Christopher can walk and we’ve only got one kid to drop off. Join me now in the classroom, won’t you?

There were no first-day tears, from either the pupil or the parents. Thank God we got that over with last year in preschool. Of course, at the time I was 800 miles away in New York City, and left the drop-off to poor Tras, who was completely new to the delicate art of nudging a fledgling out of the nest. It was harrowing to the two of them — but mostly for me, who had to listen to the post-dropoff sniffing and snuffling via cell phone four states away.

Due to the disparity in school start times, we weren’t able to get a shot of all three children ready for school; the hair gel and other products were still being applied before anything audacious as a group photograph could be taken — but here is Claire and two of her friends at band rehearsal, which has rapidly taken over our lives. Claire’s in the color guard, which back in the day we called flag corps.

And then we have my dear boy, Christopher. So easygoing, so helpful. First-chair in the middle-school band … an eighth grader who’s been asked to participate this year in the highly competitive high school band. My little marcher, voted Best Mohawk last week at the end of band camp.

So that’s the State of the Household here in August 2010. Who knew starting school would be such a hair-raising experience?