Happy last Saturday of August and the oft-considered end of Summer. Monday is Labor Day here in the United States the traditional start and end of a lot of things that no longer pay attention to the informal calendar. At least Linda still pays attention. So, while David and I spend a quiet hour at our favorite watering hole, we’ll reminisce about those lost traditions and hope that we can cover the prompt.
Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “school.’” Use it as a noun or a verb; use it any way you’d like. Have fun!
SoCS — Linda G. Hill
If we were having a beer, you’d be in a reflective mood.
“Happy Saturday, Dan.”
“Same to you, David. Aren’t you drinking today?”
“Curley is out on the patio. I told him I could wait until you got here. Here he comes.”
“Hi David, Dan. I’ll pour you your usuals, and David, I will put three cherries in your John Howell’s Bourbon — Cheryl gave me an earful about ‘pulling a Skippy’ as she called it.”
“No real harm done, Curley, but I’ll take those cherries, just the same. I wonder how Skippy is doing, Dan.”
“Pretty well, I think. I saw his name listed in another play at the Shubert Theatre in New Haven.”
“Wow! What play?”
“Clue?”
“I bet he plays Colonel Mustard. The murder takes place in the lounge and the victim’s martini contained poison.”
“Don’t pick on Skippy, David. Besides, you’re remembering the game we played as kids. The play is based on the movie. Fewer rooms, weapons and suspects.”
“He you go, gentlemen, a John’s Howell’s Special and a cold glass of Modelo — woops!”
“What just happened, Curley?”
“I guess ice formed on the bottom of that glass. Good thing it’s a slow day or someone would be wearing a beer.”
“Give me a minute, David and I’ll toast to the end of summer.”
“Here you go, Dan. One cold beer. Someone will be out in a few minutes to clean that mess.”
“To the end of summer, Dan, although I think it already ended.”
“You refer to the weather? It’s cooler, but that’s not a bad thing, David.”
“No. I can deal with cooler temps. I hope they stick around. I’m talking about all the other things we used to wait for Labor Day for.”
“I may regret this, but what things, David?”
“School for one. There were school buses on the road all last week. Remember when school started the day after Labor Day?”
“I do. It starts much earlier now.”
“It does, and the stores have been selling Halloween candy for weeks. I waited as a kid brought a cart out of the back of Target, and I saw Christmas trees in the storeroom. They’ll be selling those soon.”
“They do tend to rush the season.”
“Look here, they already have Octoberfest on tap, as well as…Curley what the heck is that?”
“That, my friend, is a brand new pumpkin spiced ale.”
“Ugh. This is why I drink bourbon. Nobody messes with bourbon.”
“Au contraire, David. Check this out.”
“Southern Tier Pumking – Pumpkin Whiskey? That’s sacrilege, Curley.”
“You want a taste?
“No!”
“I think you should put that away, Curley. David is getting spun up.”
“I am spun up, Dan. Mainly because of the biggest, and in my humble opinion the worst, change with respect to Labor Day. Years ago, the general election campaigns didn’t really start until after Labor Day.”
“Now they start after the inauguration.”
“I know you’re trying to be funny, but it’s close to the truth. I am so sick of…”
“David.”
“What?”
“We agreed, and Cheryl requires that we don’t ever talk about politics at the bar. You don’t want to get Curley in trouble again, do you?”
“Okay, okay. I’ll give it a rest.”
“That’s good.”
“You guys want some food?”
“Mushrooms, Curley. Two orders of Teagan’s Stuffed Mushrooms.”
“Coming right up!”
All five of my current books are now available in audio book form thanks to Amazon KDP’s Virtual Voice process. The voice is AI generated, but I can honestly say, it’s pretty darn good. The audio books are reasonably priced (all below $7 US) and, if you already own the Kindle version and want to add an audio version, you can do that for $1.99. There is a five-minute sample on the book page for each book. If you’re interested, click on any of the Dreamer’s Alliance book links below the image or on the link below for my latest book.
No Facilities 
Add your thoughts or join the discussion. One relevant link is OK, more require moderation.