So, August has arrived.

Over the next two or three weeks, the community clocks throughout the Heartland will reset. To paraphrase Alice Cooper “School’s (Back) In.”

It has always been interesting to me that we slog through the summer, combining additional chores around the house with the continued responsibility of daily work at our ‘paying’ jobs into a tsunami of activity. Weddings, reunions and more events are attended, while parents invest countless hours driving youngsters to a wide array of camps, none of which may even touch upon the now-common practice of year-round sports.

It’s quite a change for this kid, whose summer activity involved a close, personal relationship with a John Deere 2520, pulling a swather, a cultivator or gathering piles of hay for Dad to stack.

But every year, as teachers, administrators, coaches and janitors prepare for the start of the new school year, every community takes a last deep breath. We rush toward that last hectic, but relaxing, weekend, knowing that when the school bell rings, the next opportunity for more than a day or two away doesn’t come until late December.

Some Huron High School athletic teams — Cheer and Dance as well as Tennis — have already begun practicing and the girls’ tennis team already has a match this next week. I don’t live near enough to hear it any more, but a dollar will get you 10 that the marching band is out working early in the morning in preparation for its fall schedule.

School officially begins in the Huron School District on Aug. 17, and it is also a safe bet that all of the other schools in the area will be in session or starting soon around that date.

For a large number of us without kids in school that doesn’t directly affect us.

Except it does.

Youngsters will be walking to bus stops, or waiting to be picked up. Others will be walking or riding their bikes to their school. A great number will be driving to school. All of these youngsters are coming down from ‘summer mode,’ and may not be paying as close attention as they will in a couple weeks.

So that is where we come in. Take a couple extra minutes on your morning commute. Be aware of those who may not be aware of you and remember that those crosswalks you have been cruising through all summer belong to the pedestrian seeking to cross the street.

Please, slow down and take care.