Just this morning I was walking a child to school and I was wearing her backpack because it was so darn heavy. A neighbor kid saw me and said, in jest, “I like your backpack, Mrs. B!” and I told him that I never had a backpack. “Ahhhhh, that’s so sad!” he said. “How did you carry your books?”

And I got to thinking about it. I walked back and forth to school every day (in wind, in rain, in sleet, in snow, uphill . . .okay, I’ll stop). I had what was called a “bookstrap” that was made of rubber and hooked around a small pile of books, which I then carried in my arms. And that was that. No big deal. Yet, in all these years of back-to-school shopping as a mom, I have yet to see a bookstrap for sale. Do they still sell these things? Has anyone seen them? Do you know what I’m talking about?

Why are kids dragging home these 20-pound backpacks every day? They’re rolling them down the street like carry-on luggage, and with the new public school dress codes requiring khakis and collared shirts, they look like little Business Casual road warriors on their way through LaGuardia. No wonder they need chiropractors.