With Hurricane Irene behind us and power restored to the people of Woodbridge, Beecher Road School finally started the day after Labor Day. On Wednesday, the Parent Teacher Organization held the back to school ice cream social. This is an annual event where a handful of parents in the PTO work diligently to get the school year off to a good start, and just about everyone else breathes a sign of relief.

Further complicating this year’s back to school ice cream social, it was raining yet again, so the event was held indoors. I was even later than I had anticipated due to a couple accidents on the parkway I passed on my way home. All of the energy of the children released itself in a level of noise which would have dissipated much more nicely outside.

To the parents of older children, the whole event was very familiar. It was the same old faces same the same stuff. Dr. Stella, First Selectman Sheehy, Senator Crisco, and Representative Klarides all did there part. For new families, it was a chance to meet other parents and members of the community and get a sense of the school their children were now attending.

Yet after Hurricane Irene and the cleanup, after the concerns about Hurricane Katia, the wildfires in Texas, the debt crisis in Europe, and gridlock in Washington, it was good to see the old familiar rituals carried out and the ability of people to carry on and make the best of things, even if it was a rainy start to the new school year.