It will soon be back-to-school time, and I was remembering my very first day of school in grade one.

My dad took this picture of me that day. It was just a few weeks before we left Germany to come to Canada. I hated my hairdo then and I hated it for many years until I was allowed to have it a little bit longer so it didn’t look so chopped off.

But anyway, it’s not about my hair. It’s about this big cone. Too bad the photo is only black and white. The wrapping on the cone was so pretty. This big decorated cardboard cone is bribery, I suppose. All grade one students get one of these on the first day of school as an incentive to be brave. If you go to school without a fuss on the first day of grade one, you get this cone that is filled with goodies. My mom, who is peeking out the window to watch this memorable moment, allowed me a quick peek into my cone. I remember that it had some of that packing straw in it with a big chocolate bar under it and a bunch of grapes on top of it. Probably there were other goodies lower down, but at first glance I could only see the few things right on the top, and I wasn’t allowed to do any more peeking after that first quick look.

The rule was, you couldn’t indulge until you came home after school. As it turned out, it was a pretty good day,  and I loved school every day after that, even if we didn’t get a cone full of goodies after that first day.

My left hand gives away how I felt that morning before going to school. It’s in a fist. Just a bit of tension there.

Thirteen years earlier, my older sister, Hanna, went through the same thing. Here she is with her “first day of school” cone. Like me, she had a leather schoolbag over her shoulder and I’m sure she felt every bit as important as I did on my first day. She seems a lot more relaxed than I was though.

I think it would be fun to have this tradition for first graders in Canada, but I don’t suppose that’s likely to happen. I just remember that it made an intimidating day into one of happy anticipation.