Henrietta Hay's Column

The world is so still today. There are no children around. Houses are quiet. The only bicyclers are adults wearing spandex tights and earnest expressions. You could throw a baseball down the length of the mall and not hit a single kid, although you might nick a few grandparents. The parks, which were teeming with activity yesterday, are empty. It is the first day of school.

Of course the activity has simply moved, as the teachers will be the first to tell you. Today those echoing, empty buildings are full of motion and noise and, we do fervently hope, a few ideas. Then at 3:00 o'clock the outside action starts again Traffic on north Fifth St. is back to its afternoon frenzy and refrigerator doors all over town start banging on schedule.

In a world of constant change, there are a few things that never change very much. The calendar says the year starts in January but we all know better. It starts in September and it has been that way for as many years as I can remember. I don't know about the rest of the world, but in America the day after Labor Day still means that the kids go to school, the mothers sigh deeply, either with relief or sadness, and we all feel that we are starting over.

A lot of the details are different now, however. Take clothes. The first day of school is the day to appear in new finery in the latest style, however weird that may be. In earlier times the kids did not celebrate the day with new clothes unless the old ones were indecent. My memory mercifully fades, but I sort of remember pleated skirts below my knees, knee socks and -- sob -- bloomers. For the benefit of the younger generation, Webster defines bloomers as "a) baggy trousers gathered at the knee, formerly worn by girls and women for athletics. b) An undergarment somewhat like this." Heck, it was exactly "like this." They were pretty awful, but we didn't know any better.

According to my sources, today's girls show up in just about anything that strikes their fancy. They love denim jeans and bright colored leggings and all sorts of wild T-shirts. One little girl I know, who seems to be quite an authority, prefers "the bottoms tight and the tops loose!" I am reliably informed by my male teen-age authority that cargo pants, which were all the rage last year, are no longer IN. Thank goodness. They were aptly named. They had enough pockets to carry supplies for a safari and were about as glamorous. This year the male style is plain old jeans that look as though they just emerged from the washing machine for the 120th time. I don't know what is IN for the teachers. I wonder whether they too feel compelled to show up in new clothes on this first Day of school.

Something new has been added to the kid clothes list this year. I would not know these things without my special inside sources. The latest T-shirt rage is called Hypercolor. It actually changes color as the body temperature changes. The opportunity here for off-color remarks in infinite and I will stay far, far away from them. One other thing seems to be different this September from the Septembers of my school days and that is the teachers. There is only one grade school teacher whom I remember after all these many years, and it is not for her sweet personality or her skill that I remember her. She was a tartar. She was cranky and ill tempered and her name was Mrs. Mowry and she taught fourth grade. If she liked any of us she took her secret to the grave.

Most of the teachers that I know today will be remembered differently. They are generally caring and concerned and interested in their kids. They even seem to like them.

Certainly the educational system has changed over the years, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse, but the feeling on that first day of school stays about the same. Where have all the kids gone?