BELLAIRE • MEMORIAL • RIVER OAKS • TANGLEWOOD • WEST UNIVERSITY

First Day of School, Caught on Film

By Karen Vine Fuller, Contributing writer | August 31, 2018

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Spenser Dale's mom, Mary Lou, got creative catching his picture from home video camera footage.

Like most weekday mornings before sunrise, on the first day of school Mary Lou Dale was downtown at her Sequent Energy desk. She scrolled through Facebook smiling at her friends’ “beaming while sporting new backpacks” kiddos. She wished she had been able to take the Dale kids’ first day pictures but since she left for work so early, Spenser, a Bellaire High School student, and Sofia, a Trafton Academy student, had still been asleep.

But then, like any ingenious mom, she got smart.

First, fellow middle school mom, Lisa Hoover, texted Mary Lou a beaming picture of Sofia as the excited new 7th grader walked into school.

Sofia Dale is all smiles on her first day as a 7th grade Trafton Tiger. (Photo: Lisa Hoover)

Next, Mary Lou texted Spenser to please send a selfie or have a friend take his picture. Like most teenage boys, he replied, “Mom, no!”.

Just when Mary Lou was about to give up on her dream of having the perfect Facebook family, the social media gods smiled upon her. Triggered by her front porch video-streamed security camera, her computer suddenly dinged. Looking at the monitor, Mary Lou was relieved to see it was just Spenser locking the front door on his way to school. A light bulb went off and she took a screen shot of Spenser’s face caught on camera.

Then Mary Lou triumphantly posted the pics and waited for the likes to roll in faster than a “by the end of the year running smoothly” carpool line.

Wishing Mary Lou’s “intruder,” his little sister and all picture-perfect parents a great 2018-19 school year.