Although my children are grown, whenever I'm in a store in the fall a strong magnet pulls me through more than 15 years to the school supply aisles.

I have to remind myself with a smile and a sigh that I don't have to buy new pencils or paint boxes, Big Chief tablets or spiral notebooks, construction paper or boxes of tissues. I recall the time spent in those school supply lines, buying just the right pencils and paint boxes so my kids would feel confident as they started the adventure of a new school year.

Because I was a single mom, the excitement of the new school year was always tempered by worry about the budget strain that accompanied it. Kids seem to grow like well-watered plants under the summer sun, so new jeans and tennis shoes were a must. I sometimes tried to talk the kids into the partially used paint boxes from last year, but that never worked. Their favorite colors were mostly gone, the brush lost or frayed, and, from the looks on their faces, not having a brand-new paint box to start the year bordered on child abuse.

As summer winds down, I think about those first-day-of-school photos I took, with the smiling kids lined up in the driveway, all decked out in their new clothes, waiting for the bus. It's easy to pick out their ages by noting which teeth are missing or half-grown-in or look way too big for the size of the owner's mouth.

To this day, I relive the mixed feelings of freedom and loss that autumn brought. Finally there would be time to clean and get errands done in peace, and even have lunch with girlfriends. But the cost of that peace was the loss of lazy morning snuggles, days at the swimming pool, picnics and amusement parks, and lemonade stands.

Back-to-school memories are forever, and each year as the trees begin to turn I'm surprised by how powerful those memories are.

Now, I watch as my grandbabies disappear into toddlers, second-graders, and beyond. I share with them the fresh start of each new school year. I join the PTA and I know that there will be fundraiser candy bars and Super Saver coupon cards to buy—but the pencils and paint boxes are no longer my responsibility. I walk by the school supply aisles with an empty cart and a heart full of memories.