MY SUMMER VACATION

With the start of school, I am reminded of that dreaded by some, beginning of school English project with the above title. In the early grades you could pretty much get by with,”I had fun,” end of story. As we got a bit older, at least a full page was required.

Some kids hated this and I had mixed feelings. I always liked essay type questions or themes for they gave me an opportunity to BS around a subject. Snow the teacher with lots of words so she really couldn't tell how much I didn't know was my motto.

So the essay part I loved. It was what to write about that worried me. Seems everyone but me went somewhere in the summer. Yellowstone Park, the Grand Canyon, the mountains, the ocean, a dude ranch, visiting family in some exotic place like New York city, the Poconos , Miami, on and on.

We usually stayed put in the summer and our far off family visited us. Not subject matter to interest anyone other than another family member. So I really stewed about that first school project each year. Today I marvel that I had any fears for I had summers to be envied by many and I truly loved them.

When living in Key West, I had a tropical paradise out my front door that I can barely afford to visit today except in off season. We would go fishing with my Dad in a wooden skiff. Using hand lines to land as many as 80 fish in half a day was not unusual. As fast as you could pull the line in, either keep or release the fish. Just re-bait and drop the line in the water and we instantly had another Grunt or Yellow-tail snagged. Both are great eating and could fill a freezer.

We used a regular wooden bucket with a glass bottom to peer at and study the ocean bottom which was full of life in those days. I spent most of my time not fishing but looking in the bucket at the many sights deep in the water. The water was so clear in those days. It gave me a perfect window to an amazing world and fueled a life long interest in marine biology. Damn that movie “Jaws.”

We swam off the seldom crowded white beaches, ate Spanish limes, sucked on tamarind seeds, and drank milk from coconuts. We rode horse back on empty, undeveloped beaches and watched old but free outdoor movies provided by a local trailer park. Just about every evening not watching movies, was spent practicing my burgeoning necking skills with my steady boy friend who was a grand eleven years old.

Once we spent the whole summer living on my uncles large boat, the Mary Louisa. It was anchored in the middle of Garrison Bight and we had to take a skiff to get to our water home. I never got out of a bathing suit that summer except to sleep on a canvas bunk in my jammies. It is today ranked as one of my best summers ever. And yet I still envied those kids who said they went to the Carolina mountains for the summer. Duh.

The years in Ohio were mostly spent on a private lake. Again, I would do my water baby routine. My best friend and I always tried to out tan the other. We were as close as sisters and sometimes fought like sisters, especially when we decided we wanted the same boy.

There were quite a few boys at the lake and we were the only girls their age, yet we always wanted the same one. We were terribly competitive but in spite of that, have remained good friends for 62 years and have been miles apart almost all of that time. That might be why we are still friends :))

View from clubhouse.

When we weren't squabbling over boys, we swam, canoed, fished, had picnics, hunted turtles, played baseball , tennis, camped out in the back yard and rarely made it to town. After dinner and before the sun set, we played kick the can with the neighbor hood kids till dark. I can never recall a time when we sat around thinking how bored we were. There was just too much to do and there wasn't an electronic toy in site nor was there TV so far in the country. I really feel sorry for today's kids.

I would write those things each year for that dreaded paper and still feel some what cheated that I never got to see Old Faithful , bears or buffalo. How foolish youth is in what it deems important and youth truly is wasted on the young ( an expression I hated as a kid. )

Did you ever wish when you were a child that you could have done something special for summer yet when you look back, you realize, no amount of money could have bought the type of summer you did have?

Perhaps you were one of those I envied who did go to the mountains or Yellowstone Park but kind of wished you could have stayed home and played with the neighbor kids instead of being stuck in a car with your creepy sibling.

And how was your summer?

tuesday a m

oops-- i have a bunged up hand and arm from a spill i took yesterday. typing is one fingered right now so my follow up to your comments will be on hold for a while. hope to be back soon.

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