Time Magazine recently featured a cover story called The Case Against Summer Vacation.
So in response, I put together some things I miss about childhood summers. I don’t know if those dog days helped or hurt my academic progress, but I sure loved them. Here’s why:
- Playing outside all day . . . and only occasionally having to tell my mom where I was.
- Living in a time and place where we didn’t have to lock the front door.
- Catching fireflies by hand and bringing them inside.
- Inspired by Mutual Of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom, getting together with my friend Davey Baird and making up our own show, Talbot & Davey’s Wild Kingdom.
- With that same friend . . . using trash cans as drums and tennis rackets as guitars, we created an outdoor rock band called The Two. Then one time I left a racket outside, it rained overnight, and the racket — a vintage wooden model of course — was warped and ruined. I got in trouble and that was the end of The Two.
- When I got a bit older, I used to love playing tennis in Dallas’ 100 degree heat. Today I can’t imagine even walking in such heat but back then I felt like it brought out the best in my game.
- As a teenager, being able to go to a movie in the middle of the week. Ahhhh.
What was it like when you were a boy — or girl — of summer?
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Summers were the best. We had a corner house with a big side yard. Everyone gathered there. My mother always knew where my brother and I were and who we were with.
My cousin (next door) and I were tomboys — only girls in the neighborhood — and we either played war (influenced by the end of WWII)with our wooden rifles and digging foxholes up the hill, or we dressed like Roy Rogers and Gene Autry. If we were cowboys, my brother, cousin Jayne, and I would take my guitar (that I got for my 7th birthday) and sing in the side yard. All the neighbors would invite us to sing at their backyard weiner roasts and give us each 50 cents for our entertainment.
When I got older, the alley dances with all the teenagers in town were what we lived for — Rock Around the Clock, What’s Behind the Green Door, Blue Suede Shoes.
Slumber parties at my house — 17 girls — every Friday night. (My dad was out of town those nights so my mother let me have them.)
All afternoon NEIGHBORHOOD baseball games, choosing “sides”,and running, running, running! That was, of course, after all the “chores” were completed in the morning.
That not checking in all afternoon was really cool!
I must admit that when I read the blog title this morning, I thought sure I would see or hear Henley’s Boys of Summer
Summers for me meant that in mid June I would celebrate a birthday and receive a brand new bike. I would literally wear this bike out before winter.
My mom one day while cleaning the windows, saw the ramp, me aboard the bike at the top of the hill and the neighborhood kids lying flat of their backs on the ground out from the ramp. Completing my Evel Knievel jump with room to spare, my mom let’s out a scream from the window she was cleaning. One of the brave neighborhood boys responded with “don’t worry Mrs. Crace, Matt is the best bike jumper in the country”. My head swelled with pride as I looked for something else to jump.
Great times! Out the door first thing in the morning after breakfast and checked back in for dinner (never late of course).
Your wish is my command
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqYBGcv41M8
Best song ever.
🙂
Summers meant all afternoon at the neighborhood swimming pool—Fair Blue Swim Club in Wilmington, De. And of course, heading to the Jersey shore (not the beach and certainly not today’s tainted sort). But alas, my 57-year-old skin is today paying the price, for back then, we didn’t have sunscreen or any other type protection. And maybe my favorite summer enjoyment was that everybody my age rushed home at 3 p.m. to be there when Benjamin Collins debuted on TV as the original campy vampire in “Dark Shadows.” Now that was entertainment!!!
Playing outside all day long and only coming home for lunch and dinner. My mom had an old ships’ bell that hung outside the back door that she would ring whenever it was time for dinner. You could hear that bell all over the neighborhood!
Playing kickball, baseball, dodgeball, you name it with my brothers and all the other neighborhood kids. We didn’t need tvs, mp3’s, game boys, etc…to keep us busy. Those were the days.