@gusmom2000: My wife and I are like “Wow, it’s so strange to have the second floor hallway clear.” The kids had just used that as a storage/staging area when they moved home at the beginning of summer.
BTW, if any of you parents have not seen this thread on the college side of the forum, it’s a classic:
@SevenDad Thank you thank you thank you! I was having a not great day but that link just turned things around for me!
Happy to report a very smooth drop off for Chemmkid 2.0. today and it seems she found her people right away. Really happy for her …and expect to hear from her VERY soon as she waaay under packed. 1 sweatshirt, no sweaters, no boots, no pjs…! This “Clueless” mom who was excluded from the packing had a little chuckle to myself over this but, hey, she was unpacked in 20 minutes. Roommate claimed the extra drawers but was not obnoxious about it (and they are 2 girls in a massive triple). Good thing the drive to the Berkshires is so pleasant
Got this text this morning: " MOM ITS 47 DEGREES. I think I need warmer clothes" And I’m back in business!
@chemmchimney Good thing us clueless people can read texts. 
hahahhahah
If the dress code would let him, mine would rotate through the same 5-6 pairs of shorts the entire school year, along with a blazer and tie of course. Also flip flops …unless there was a blizzard, then maybe he’d add a parka and wear boots. sigh
I don’t know if DS is far along enough in his read through the student handbook to see that wearing Bermuda shorts “in warm weather” is at the pleasure of the Headmaster, not the discretion of a 14 y.o. boy. I think he has come to terms with the jacket and tie on the assumption that he’ll be wearing Bermuda shorts until Thanksgiving, if not Christmas. I doubt that the tags will ever come off of the rain jacket that I ordered yesterday and had shipped to campus; I am even less confident that he will ever wear a winter coat or boots.
My absolute favorite pic of ChoatieKid during his BS years is him standing in a classroom doorway in navy blazer, white button-down shirt, lobster tie, khaki shorts, and topsiders. When I said, “OMG, CK! That’s FABULOUS! You should look like that EVERY day,” he burst my bubble with, “MOM! That’s a crew joke. We dress sick like that the day before the Head of the Charles in years Choate is selected to row there.” Well, a mother can dream, and at least I have that picture. Otherwise, it was shorts (outside of class) and inappropriate footwear all year round. Parka and boots? What are those?
I guess it’s a boy thing. My girls were definitely appreciative of their boots/winter coats and wore them in season…I mean, what’s not to like about a down puffer?
A “down puffer,” @SevenDad? Sounds like something you smoke behind the bleachers.
@ChoatieMom: Probably in one of those “hot pots” mentioned on the prefect thread. 
At Taft circa late 70s, we had “butt rooms” in each dorm for smoking, clove cigs of course, no need for puffer jackets. How times have changed.
Same here, @chemmchimney. It’s amazing to think about butt rooms in the basement and teenagers enabled in their smoking. I do remember the clove cigarettes.
Until the mid-80’s, Andover allowed cigarette smoking with parental permission, although the smoking area, I am told, got smaller and smaller until it was limited to the dorm room before it was finally banned.
@skieurope: This was case at my private high school. There was an area literally called “The Smoking Steps” in a garden behind the manse that served as one of the school buildings. Looking back, it seems insane that parents would sign off on that sort of thing…
A good portion of the parents were smoking then as well, I guess.
The smoking lounge at my high school was a scraggly patch of grass next to the parking lot.
When my husband attended EHS in the 1980s, there was an area called “Egypt” where the boys went to smoke. I assume it got the name from Camel cigarettes, but I really don’t know. Of course, EHS is now co-ed and no longer allows smoking. It is hard to imagine any high school (public, private or boarding) allowing a smoking lounge/area in this day and age.
Ah, the butt room. Where all the cool kids hung out, even if they didn’t smoke. It was enough to know that you could if you wanted to. : D