AS summer holidays
come to a close, I find
the pace of my life once
again escalating.

Soccer prsctices have
already begun, hockey tr
outs are right around th
ner, and just in case I”
ing a little too relaxed from
the summer break, “back-ro-
school” shopping is in full

swing.

Retailers of all manner of
things are seizing the oppor-
tunity to create back-to-
school shopping interest.
Clothes, backpacks, tasty
treats to pur into Linches, all
these things are npe for the
buying, according to the

advertising flyers that plump
up our community papers.

Apparently now is also the
time to buy a computer, that
is if you care about your stu-
dent's computer literacy. And
what good is a computer
without a decent coniputer
desk?

There are back-to-school
specials on almost everything
you can think of, even stuff
that has nothing to do with
school. Back-to-school furni-
ture blow-outs, back-to-
school car tune-ups, back-re
schcol specials on cosmetics,
sewing machines, and even
television scts await the inex-
perienced shopper.

But ¥’m a seasoned veter-
an of back-to-school shop-
ping, and I refuse to be
sucked into the rush to buy
unnecessary schoo! supplies
and clothes that will only
cause my little darlings to
sweat profusely in the still hot
September weather.

Besides, my kids are bru-
tal. They only want the best
stuff, and they end up losing
or trading, most of what I buy
them anyway.

As far as I’m concerned,
there are only two ways to
approach back-to-school

maiibox

shopping.

The first is only an option
if your children are itt ele-
mentary school. [f they are,
you can pre-order ol

upplies at the end of the
school year for the coming
year.

The Edu Pak costs rough
ly $20 and contains pret
well everything vour kid
need in the following .
Trust me, that $20 beats the
hell out of the $60 you'll end
up spending per kid when
you take your kids out to buy
school supplies now.

However, if your children
fail to bring home the Edu
Pak order form (mine often
did), or they are in high
school (mine now are), the
Edu Pak option is no longer
avaiable, so one must ven-

< out to buy school sup-

I’ve found that the best
. to deal with this is to
until the first full day of
school (there's nothing so
pressing that it cannot wait
until school actually begins

se on that day you
have the break you need to
go out, without your kids, to
get the basic necessities for
the school year.

Now this is the key, so lis-
ten up. Shopping for school
supplies with your kids will
cost you a lot more time and
money than it will without
them.

T wasn’t always this smart.
There was a time when I,
too, took my kids with me te

Dan ieainel

chool supplies. But I
rae learned that kids
make you spend way more
money than you have to
because thev cle con:
vince you that things like
musical er.
glittery eyeliner pene is con-
stitute school supplie

One vear when TE took my
oldest son bac
shopping he claimed that the
calculator required to suc:
cessfully complete Grade 7
math was the one in the store
with the $159.99 price tag
on it.

“But Mom,” pleaded the
boy when IT shook my head,

you and Dad ean calculate
the amortization rate on your
mortgage, and look, it even
gives bond vields.”

I had no idea they taught
these things in Grade 7 math.

‘The same kid tried to sell
me on buying a new
Nintendo game. When I told
hirn he was out of his mind,
he defended the propose
purchase by showing me the
back-to-school sale sticker iin
it.

My other boy is a real
wheeler-dealer. it doesn’t
matter what | buy him for
school, he’s usually traded it
for something he wants more
by the end of the first week

Last year he traded a per-
fectly good calculator for a
toy calculator that talked.
Unfortunately his teacher
didn’t appreciate the constznt
chatter of the talking thing
and she confiscated it, leaving
him to figure out his math
sums with, God forbid, his
own brain.

He also traded his brand
new dictionary for Howard
Stern's Private Parts, a pack-
age of new felt pens for a pen
shaped like a naked lady, and
his good, Eddie Bauer back-

ack for a cheap Hulk Hogan
lunch kit. (Sadly, the school
supply traders’ code of con-

Questioning cultural racism

Dear Editor:

Re: A. Eguizabal’s letter
entitled “Spanish lessons
needed at the News” (Aug. 28
News). As a lover of the
Spanish language and of
Mexican culture, it offends
me also to find Spanish words
misspelled in the press. 1 am,
however, willing to make
excuses for your paper, as your
printing shop does probably
not have the type for the
ia oe Spanish diacritical

which gocs over the let-
ter N in words such as “nino”

and manana,” and is the
Spanish | equivaient of the
French “gn” combination, as
in Champagne, or Montagne.

Which brings me to the
point of A. Eguizabal’ S accus-
ing you of “pure cultural
racism” and disliking every-
thing French. As if to under-
score that charge, the two
examples cited are misspelled:
“Mantiens”, — instea of
“Maintiens le Droit” (the
RCMP motto), and, whar is
shocking: “on y soit,” instead
of “Honni soit qui mal y

pense,” the old French motto
inscribed on the Order of the
Garter, and which means
“Shame on him who thinks
badly of it.”

Now, who is guilty of “cul-
tural racism”: A. Eguizabal, or
you, the editor? Or is it both:
A. Eguizabal for not having
checked before writing, and
you for not cditing his/her
letter, or at least placing the
caption (sic) nexe to his/her
French quotations?

René Goldman
North Vancouver

\ VOGUE yi. )
Wacolinitn la

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duct does not allow for
parental intervention. Ail
trades are firm, or so the boy
informed me, so the stuff was
lost for good.)

See what [ mean? Kids are
brural when it comes to back-
to-school stuff.

So my kids are starting
school on Tuesday with the
Humphreys Spartan Pack: a
binder, some paper, and a

nd unless TP see some

-to-schcol specials on

thing like a hill body

age or a new set of golf
clubs, you won't find me
back-to-school shopping until
my bids are in fact, back to
school.

Friday, September 4, 1998 — North Shore News — 7

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