“Jimmy quit. Jody got married.”
Summer, for Americans anyway, has always been something special.
Maybe it’s the warm weather, which makes it easier to be outside and in the water. The barbecues and parties, the vacations, the time off from work and school, the fact that it doesn’t get dark until 9. The possibilities of a summer romance.
Whatever the case may be, the season of Summer has always been an exciting time.
When I was a young boy I looked forward to Summer like nothing else, even more so than Christmas. My sister and I would spend virtually the whole summer with our grandparents, who pretty much let us do what we wanted. We had TVs in our bedrooms. We had a pool in the backyard. We could stay up as late as we want and sleep in every day.
Summers with my grandparents also meant summers with Bob, my best friend growing up whose grandparents lived across the street from my grandparents.
We would usually begin our day around 8:30 a.m. Which ever one of us woke up first would go outside and do sort of a bird-call outside the other guys window until he woke up.
Our days were spent playing whiffle and football, swimming, going to the movies, waiting impatiently for the ice cream man, who arrived everyday at 4:15.
Our grandparents didn’t call us to go in until 9. When you’re a young boy, what’s better that staying outside playing till 9 every night!
These days, certain things about the summer bring me right back to those days. Like hearing the bells from the ice cream truck or hearing other kids riding their bikes on the street. That used to be me before the weight of the world crushed my innocent spirit.
Summers as a teenager were just as fun, filled with movies, beaches, house parties and of course The Bantam Carnival.
Don’t get me wrong, I still love summer. But I’d be lying if I said it had the same warm feeling as it once did.
Maybe it’s because I don’t have a big family. Maybe it’s because I don’t have kids to take to the beaches and the amusement parks. Or, maybe it’s just because I’m older. Summer represents innocence and there’s no doubt that as you grow up, innocence is the first thing to go.
One of my greatest summer memories is a simple one, from the Summer of 89.
Bob and I each arrived at the respective homes of our grandparents on the Thursday before 4th of July weekend. We were both staying until Sunday. We did all the typical 4th of July things. We ate BBQ during the day. We swam in my pool and took a trip to Bob’s grandparents lake house in Winsted. We watched fireworks from the porch of Bob’s grandparent’s house. We had my grandfather drop us off at the movie theater and we watched Batman with Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson. We mingled with other kids who were in the neighborhood for the holiday.
It was nothing too special but for some reason the memory of that weekend has never left me. That weekend, more so than any other, represents what it truly means to be a young boy in America during the summertime.
It’s funny the things that stay with you.
