Summer Vacation

500 Words

Remembering summer vacation as a child

The countdown is on, the countdown to summer vacation from school.. that is. How do I know you may ask? Our backyard borders on the far edges of the playground at the local elementary school and often a small group of kids will congregate there at noon recess. If the wind is blowing in the right direction, their discussion is as clear as a bell.

The other day a group was discussing the upcoming summer vacation. . They could not agree on the date, but they all knew the last day was a Monday and each bragged that his or her parents surely would not make them come to school for just one day. It was 'stupid' to have just one day of school!

I listened intently as each described how they were going to spend the summer. Several would be going away to church camp for a week or two. One boy would be going to spend the summer in New York with grandparents. He was pretty excited because his grandparents had horses and this year he he was old enough to learn to ride..

Some would be going to family camps at nearby lakes and ponds This was going to present a problem because they really wanted to play baseball and the coach said that if.....you know the coaches!

One young girl complained that she would have to spend the days at home with her older sister while her parents worked. All her sister did was talk on the phone and smoke cigarettes. Boring.

I thought about my summer vacation planning nearly six decades ago. The end of school was always an exciting time. The first item on the list? Make sure you got promoted to the next grade level. Not getting promoted would mean a terrible summer.

There was baseball and the town's summer recreation program. I think my mother still has some of the arts and crafts projects we made year after year.

By the middle of July things sometimes got pretty boring. No one would admit that they would like to be back in school, but I think that's what we were all thinking. And I also think that mom and dad were eager to have school begin too.

Sometime during the second week of August, there was the phone call! “Your teacher for the school year will be.............. Oh no! Not her. She's so mean.” Last year she failed everybody in her class. And besides, her hair is a funny color.

Back in my day, school didn't begin until after Labor Day., so there might be one more picnic or trip to the beach, shopping for new shoes, and the 'beginning of school' hair cut. We all looked pretty 'dorky' on the first day of school with those haircuts.

So kids, enjoy the anticipation of the upcoming summer vacation and know that September will be here before you know it.