Deja Vu All Over Again

With an apologetic smile to Yogi Berra, I really had that sense of days gone by today. It was move-in day for freshmen and UW-Green Bay, and I was entrapped to help with the lure of free meals. There's still something about the words "free lunch" which get me every time, in spite of the fact that I know such a thing is non-existent. Walking back into the past:
We dropped four kids off at college over the course of our lives, and it was simply uncanny how our experiences mirrored those of the people I watched today (mostly from under a heavy load of boxes, refrigerators and futon frames).
Exasperated mothers "tsk"ed at kids who couldn't find the paperwork they were supposed to have in order to check in. Moms spent time photographing everything and everyone as if this would be the most enduring memory of "the best years of your life." Those selfsame mothers were vacuuming a dorm room (probably for the last time this semester) and putting together shelving units while the kids chatted amiably with new roommates and made sure all the Mountain Dew made it up from the car.
Dads, the workhorses of the family, shouldered all the heavy burdens even though there were many of us there to offer assistance. They were a lot more amiable and relaxed about the whole thing, and I had fun with them.
Kids were in a big hurry to get Mom and Dad on the road: "It's a long drive, and you were up early," though we all saw through that. The memories flooded back, and I smiled all day, remembering those days and being glad not to have to relive them.
In fact, were it not for all the heavy stuff (most of it clogging rooms to the degreee that the students will have to sleep in the hallways!), it would have been thoroughly enjoyable.
The free food was good...very, very good, but sleep will come easily.