First day of school

Sept. 1 every year is a very big day for children across the former Soviet Union. It's the first day of school. If you're a 1st-grader and it's your first day ever at school, it's even a bigger deal.

It was Sonnitchka's first day ever.

Sonya is Masha's daughter. Masha is Vlad's niece, one of Tanya's two daughters. This trip, Masha was out of the picture.

Sonya lives with her father's parents, Luda and Vladimir, left, in an apartment building next to their son's apartment building. Their son, Vladimir also, is a high-ranking police officer, a lieutenant I believe, in a neighboring village and makes good money. I don't believe he and Masha ever were married, but they had Sonya in 2000.

We met Vladimir first (below with camcorder). It was about 6 or 7 a.m. He was ironing his shirt. We sat down for a bit, had some tea. We showed him our gift of a family photo album, a necklace for Masha, a knife and MP3 player for him. We left to get Sonya next door.

She was probably confused by us. But she was sweet. And tiny. A wisp of a thing. We had brought the customary flowers, but so had his dad. She couldn't carry both, so we left ours at her home. We brought her toys, and she was torn between the new toys and the first day of school. It was a terrible dilemma we foisted upon her.

We walked to school for the ceremony. Everyone was dressed to the nines. Many of the girls wore these very large white bows in their hair. It's a very traditional custom for Sept. 1. All day, all over town you see girls, even the older ones, with these giant pom-poms holding their pony tails.

She survived the courtyard program. Long and boring by kids' standards. Everyone had a camera and a video camera. At a skyscraper across the street, construction halted on about the 10th floor as all the workers stopped to watch the show.

Some of the kids sang. A couple of them did an interpretive dance. Then, another tradition: A senior and a new 1st-grader prance around the courtyard symbolizing the new and the old. This particular senior-1st grader were siblings. Very sweet. And there were a lot of cornball mini-speeches by school administrators.

Then all the students, in their school uniforms, march around the courtyard and into their classrooms. I cried. Hell, everybody cried.