Thursday evening, I gave Maggie Faith a ride to her school dance — the Winter Ball. Maggie is in her first year at her middle school. Her sister Dagny, an eighth grader, chose not to go. When I picked her up, she looked very pretty in a dress, with just a touch of mascara and blush that she borrowed from her sister. “If you don’t hear from me sooner,” she told me, “pick me up at 8 o’clock.”

I dutifully drove to the school at 8 o’clock, and I didn’t have to wait long for her to appear.

“Did you have fun?” I asked her.

“It was okay,” she said tentatively.

“Were there very many seventh and eighth graders?” I asked her.

“No, it was mostly sixth graders,” she said. A few moments passed. Then: “The sixth graders are the only ones who haven’t figured out yet how lame those dances are.”

Viva la sixth grade!

Have a great weekend.