How Did You Carry Your Books To School?

NaBloPoMo #6

I Carried Mine in My Arms....

 

This article on NPR caught my eye. It's about how students have carried their books to school over the past several decades, beginning with the old leather strap.

I started school in 1972, graduating in 1984. No one carried a backpack or rucksack or any kind of book bag to school. We piled our books and folders and binders in our arms, largest on the bottom, smallest on the top. We stood at the ends of our driveways or at our bus stops holding them against our chests in front of us or resting them on a hip, the way you would hold a baby. 

We hated days when there was something to take home from each and every class. It could get pretty heavy. And we loved the days when we could leave everything in our lockers.

I was a reader, so I always, always had a book to read, and sometimes I carried two. If I was close to the end of a book and thought it possible that I might finish it while at school, I'd take the next book I was planning to read so that there would be absolutely no chance of being caught out with nothing to read. 

If you were a girl and you carried a large handbag, you could sometimes fit some smaller books or papers in there. But other than purses, no one carried a bag unless it was a gym bag. 

Our son started school in 1995, well into the days of the backpack. By the time he was in middle school he was so loaded down with books and supplies that he bent over when he walked. I've been away from school systems since I started homeschooling our daughter in 2006, so I don't know what types of backpacks the kids use in our area now or if they are still burdened with 30 or more pounds on their backs. 
 
How do your kids carry their books? How did you carry yours when you were in school?

Happy Blogging!

~ ~ Lori