Today is Ryan and Nolan’s last day of school.
I can’t believe that it’s here. The end of elementary school for Nolan, and the end of 7th grade for Ryan.
I recall those days when time was measured in terms of school years, but when I look back at my childhood, the only times I remember with any clarity are the summer vacations.
I remember the oppressive heat and still, smoggy air in the San Fernando Valley where I grew up.
I remember the sense of accomplishment I felt when I forced myself to stay awake nearly all night the day I got out of school in 5th or 6th grade, watching VHS tapes of wrestling on the top-loading VCR, just because summer had started, and I could sleep in.
I remember the progression of water-themed toys: The hose, the thing with the clown hat that spun atop the stream of water that you jumped through, the slip-n-slide, and finally the swimming pool.
The Sunland of my elementary and early middle school days only exists in those summertime memories of ice cream trucks and afternoon naps underneath the wall-unit air conditioner.
Back when the livin’ was easy.
71 thoughts on “Summertime”
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haHAA! Slip ‘n Slide! Summertime meant going to the county pool all afternoon and then after dinner. Everyday.
I miss those days.
Actually, my favorite summertime water-toy was the weird thing with all the “hair” on it’s head taht was actually small hoses that squirmed around spraying water everywhere unpredictably. Oh, and my parents never let me have a slip and slide: “It just kills the grass.” But I still loved playing outside all summer long.
Kids grow up so fast. And, I remember my mother saying something about this when I was a kid. But, what do mothers know? =)
learning to ride bike’s with no hands, making jumps, playing baseball, hide n seek, watching Twilight Zone at noon (KTLA 5!)
Reading Dandelion Wine, the ultimate magical summer book.
I’ve always thought that the best vacation in the world would not be a cruise, hiking the Alps, or floating down the Amazon. Instead, it would be what Wil just described, a week spent as a 4 year old. The biggest stress in your life would come from not knowing whether today was Saturday, for the good cartoons in the morning. Oh, and being forced to take naps: damn, wouldn’t that just suck…
Summertime was the best — I didn’t wear shoes unless we were going to the store or going out to the Tarzan swings (two ropes with a huge knot at the end, lashed to the underside of an electrical pylon set halfway up a hill — you’d climb up to the top of the hill with a rope and jump into mid-air, swinging and yodeling). In the evenings, Mom would come home from work and take us over to Indiana to swim at the Wolf Lake beach.
Man, those were good times.
Wil,
You said:
I remember the progression of water-themed toys: The hose, the thing with the clown hat that spun atop the stream of water that you jumped through, the slip-n-slide, and finally the swimming pool.
The “clown hat” toy you’re referring to is the Wham-O Fun Fountain, which occupies a special place in the Hoffa’s Underground Vault of My Childhood Memories ™ also. Sadly though, the story turned, errr… sad.
It seems that, back in 1980, Wham-O was sued a couple of times because, “…Children may be inclined to peer into the water outlet and the stream of water could cause serious eye injuries.” (There’s some pretty serious looking legal writing about it available online; a Google search on “Fun Fountain will turn up the entire sordid story.)
The litigousness of our society bothers me; I have only grand memories of playing with my Fun Fountain and feel that lawsuits like this support my belief that many people are far more worried about who they can blame for things than anything else.
Anyway, thanks for the reminder!
Those times of freedom, worry-less, humid days are never over unless you want them to be. All night crams for finals are over, time to enjoy the sunshine for a while, well at least until September comes along.
“Suuuummmmerrrrrrr Time”
-Janice Joplin
It was so much fun running around with my friends in the sun, shooting water guns and throwing water balloons, and then the ice cream truck would come with a freezer-full of frozen goodies. :::sigh::: I miss being 6 years old…
Sighhhh, I remember those days when you could go to the park and play on the “big slide” all day long. When plummeting to earth head first at 100 mph just got a little boring, out came our moms candles. With a little elbow grease, the heat from the summer sun and your best Lee Majors impression …
Are all 8 year olds crazy? Yes, and 20 years on I have the scars on my chin to prove it.
HA!
I think we all have that scar on our chins…I got mine from playing “Superman” on my skate board in front of my house, on uneven sidewalk…in Summer.
Wil..your post made me remember how the inside of
a schoolbus SMELLED (for some psycho reason..last
day of school etc.)…and also it was a beautiful
yang to the yin of your “other” topic.
You are a owerful writer.
This IS a recording: PLEASE WRITE A BOOK!!!!!!!!
“A Slip’n Slide! You’ll cut your let off!” This was my mother’s response to my imperative that I must have a Slip’n Slide. Needless to say, I was so intrigued by how one could cut one’s leg off with this thing, that I spent the rest of the summer at my friend’s house trying to slice off my leg. I’m not sure, but I think my mom was exaggerating.
I remember swimming all day in the pool and coming home to lay down on our big, over-stuffed floor pillow. The feeling of being worn out and the chlorine smell and the sun on my skin. It made curling up under a blanket in front of the television the single-most wonderful part of my day.
My fondest memory? Summer floods. We would get torrential rains in Southeast Texas and the streets would fill up with water. We would completely ignore our mothers’ collective pleas and go tromping through the water anyway. You could see the absolute force with which the drain was trying to clear the water, but we didn’t fear it.
Now that I’m older, I see flood waters and think of my kids being sucked down the drain, getting bitten by a snake or coming home with some parasite.
My fondest memory? Snaggin’ that bluegill through the eye, only the eye popped out and my brother wouldn’t take it off the hook for me. What an ass-nut.
For me it’s the smell of deep woods off, the sound of abba (on an 8-track no less), and the feel of 140 degree vinyl in a 78 oldsmobile station wagon.
mmm… ice cream.
Until I moved into my current apartment I’d never known the joy of having an ice cream truck come down the street where I lived. Year after year there’d be an ice cream truck in front of my elementary school and sometimes in front of my high school, but having one on a residental street is special. The street is full of families with children and dogs. When the truck drives down playing it’s tune an amazing thing happens: Children and adults stop what they’re doing and run off their steps, out of their homes, down the street. I live on a street that becomes a street hockey rink daily (and where children playing hockey don’t move for cars, despite repeated honking), and playtime lasts late until the night as soon as nice weather hits in the spring. I live through these children and with them (other people’s children are great but I’m not sure I want my own). It’s a tight-knit community where everyone knows each other and all adults act like parents whether they are or not (choruses of “Look both ways!” are common). I’m often asked if I’m a kid or a parent. 🙂
This summer I MUST get a Super-Soaker, one that will blast the childrens’ water guns out of, well, the water.
I’m reliving my childhood and I like it better the second time around. I spent summers as a kid at camp but once I hit sleep-over camp age I didn’t want to go anymore. Being with the same people 24/7 was torture, especially since I was bullied. What I liked most about summer was sleeping in, watching TV during the day, playing baseball, going swimming in my grandmother’s pool, eating watermelon in season and going to amusement parks.
If you can’t be a kid in the summer, surround yourself with them. Enjoying beer, port and fruity alcoholinc drinks on the porch on a warm, clear night or day is definitely an adult perk.
[apologies for the extra-long post]
Heh. My sister and I (although she won’t admit it now) would dance in the street in front of our house to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” album.
Actually, she danced. I wasn’t doing it right, according to her. She had the silver glove and top hat.
That’s all right, I got into new wave after that. 😀
Now that I think about it; Where the hell did my childhood go? I want it back! Things seemed so much easier when the only thinga that seemed to matter was who could get the most playing cards in their bicyle spokes and being home in time for dinner. I guess now I’m gonna hafta go wallow in my self pity and then write a book about how my parents didn’t love me.
Actually my life has been good up untill this point, hopefully it will be just as good as it continues. Even though the summer may have lost its magic for most of us adults (thanks for pointing it out Wheaton!) atleast one day I may have my own little hell spawns to enjoy the summer and bitch about clothing and food and bedtime and all the wonderful things I always had to bitch about. Yeah sounds fun!
Lest you forget – backyard Tennis Ball! 7-10th grade we kept having to find a bigger yard. Starting from my small, fenced in yard (but then is was more than enough) to the little league field after the scheduled games or practice.
Then there was also — Frisbee Golf!
24 days until I turn 30 😛
Oh yes the slip and slide! 🙂
We put ours on a hill in the back yard but alas those little bitty holes never quite threw enough water onto the plastic so we had another hose that just ran down the slide, but THEN …being on a hill we always slipped way beyond that plastic which gave you a really interesting wedgie so we got a big plastic tarp and extended that sucker another 12 ft! Oh yeah! now that rawked! 😛
Fish are jumpin’ and the cotton is high.
I had one of those clown things too! I loved that thing. Now, the kids and I run through the Crazy Daisy.
My God, your post made me miss being a kid. Its amazing just how long the summer seemed when we were kids isn’t it? I wish I could get hose days back. You are very lucky to be able to relive them vicariously through your kids. K.
Good piece, Wil.
For me, it meant looking forward to road trips in the camper with the folks, sometimes to a campground at an AirForce base (very cool, as we had to cross active runways to get to the water-side campground … I always looked out the windows suspiciously, just in case a plane decided to land as we made our way across). Sometimes we’d go across Canada, or down to the Excited States (destinations of Oregon or California). Another cool thing was that my folks would spring the trip on me: they’d usually ask me the night before “did you ever think of going to see the Rockies?” or something, which just maximized the excitement. Suddenly, the next morning, we were off.
Other favorite things included fishing with my dad in our 17″ boat whenever the mood struck him.
For the first few weeks, it always seemed that the summer would stretch on forever, a great feeling of freedom.
M Network got the cure for the Summertime Blues
Summer fun..yea, the summers use to last forever. I remember hours & hours of playing my Atari 2600 & Colecovision with my friend Steve (we once played the game Ladybug for 12 hours straight).
If we were lucky enough we’d ride out bikes down to the local Chuck E. Cheese with a few bucks in tokens. Sometimes we’d run into our more desperate friends begging strangers for tokens.
Occasionally my friend’s mom fired up the Station Wagon Pinto to drive us down to the local public pool and on the way home a cool slurpee from those Polyester Green shirt wearers at 7-11.
M Network got the cure for the Summertime Blues
Summer fun..yea, the summers use to last forever. I remember hours & hours of playing my Atari 2600 & Colecovision with my friend Steve (we once played the game Ladybug for 12 hours straight).
If we were lucky enough we’d ride out bikes down to the local Chuck E. Cheese with a few bucks in tokens. Sometimes we’d run into our more desperate friends begging strangers for tokens.
Occasionally my friend’s mom fired up the Station Wagon Pinto to drive us down to the local public pool and on the way home a cool slurpee from those Polyester Green shirt wearers at 7-11.
The Super Soaker 50. You know, with the yellow body and green bottle? It was about ten bucks, and the perfect medium of supersoakers. It had good range, a fullsize tank, and wasn’t one of those monsterous $30 three-tank machines that a kid had trouble holding once full. On top of that, you could drop it on the cement around the public pool a few dozen times without it ever having trouble. Those were the days…my super soaker 200 broke the first time it was dropped, and I didn’t even drop it. :-\
I know exactly what you mean Wil! I did the same thing the first night i got out from school. I went to bed at 8am and woke up at 3pm. It was the life. But my summer is changing. Congradulations to Ryan and Nolan.
[sigh]
Those were the days! I used to stay up and watch MTV all night long. The beginning of summer also used to mean that it was getting close to my birthday and that meant party with presents. I would get so excited!!! Now, I with everything that is going on in my adult life, I just realized that it will be my birthday soon and I was said to myself “Oh”.
You are right, things were so simple then!
One word for you all: Fireflies.
I will always remember the first night that fireflies came out. We would immidiatley convince my father to punch some holes in the top of a jar so we could make firefly lanterns. Then we would fill it with some grass and a dozen fireflies, and fall asleep in our room watching intermitant flashes of firefly asslight.
Oh my effing GOD, Wil. I totally had one of those clown fountains! My sister and I and most of the neighborhood kids would run through that friggin’ thing all day, until our skin was all pruney and the backyard turned into a complete mud pit.
Ever to that thing where you stand directly over the stream and get the clown hat to land on your head? It usually landed wrong and konked us kids right on the noggin’.
For a long time I wondered where the fireflies and ice cream trucks went. I saw neither anymore. I figured ice cream trucks were a thing of the past, and fireflies had entered the endangered species list without anybody noticing.
Then several months ago, I heard an ice cream truck in my neighborhood. I could barely believe my ears. I jumped up from the chair in front of my computer and ran outside. Either my ears hadn’t been hallucinating, or now my eyes were too.
Alas…I’m trying to lose weight. But I watched some kids run up and buy some ice cream. It was fun.
A couple weekends ago, at an outdoor production of Midsummer Nights dream, I saw some fireflies. They’re back too, it seems.
Now…what I still don’t know…is where they went. I’m happy they’re back…but have they always been there, and I just didn’t see them for many years….or did they really leave, and come back only recently?
If they’ve been there, and I just didn’t see…what could make me blind?
I used to pull alnighters after school ended too. My older brother tricked me into this treaty.. he’s a historical buff so he made it sound real. It was the treaty of Grandoria and it said that I was not going to stay up past midnight so that he would have the TV. And I fell for it! Blimy… *shakes head* Thems were the days.
Just today my bro and I went to get the groceries in this kind farming town about 20 minutes northeast of here. After we were done we went to Rotten Ronnie McDonalds to eat. It reminded me of the days we used to go grocery shopping with mom, my grandmother and sometimes my brother. We’d always go to Mc’D’s and Mom didn’t like pickles on her burger so Gram would eat them.
Ahh
Memories..
It’s funny, because today I got my bachelor’s degree in the mail, making today kind of officially my last tie to school ever. Now, for the summer of my life…. hehehe…
EEEEEEEEK! I had that clown-hat thing too! I miss those days 🙂
How funny you posted this…Just Wednesday I downloaded “Summertime” by DJ Jazzy Jeff and listened to it all day yesterday…just reminding me of high school and good times past. Now all I do is blog about conformity and other crap.
My how life goes by…
Why is it everytime i think of my younger days which at the tender age of 19 is not that far away, i can only remember something resembling a Dawsons Creek episode, but with less idealogical wrangling and unecessary spouting of pop-psycho babble? I think i need help on this one, from say, a shrink? I also have the same strange memory of hosepipes and other water spraying devices, each more elaborate and most importantly, more powerful than the last. In retrospect it was like a mini cold war, but without Pacy.
Ahhhh…the neighbourhood kids would come from miles around to use my clown head. My sister and I were the envy of all. I can’t believe that they pulled it off the market for eye injuries! Our biggest problem was that when our Mom did laundry the water pressure would drop and if you happened to be running through the stream, you’d probably bounce the hat right off your forehead! And it hurt, didn’t it Fraize? 🙂 At that point we’d just chase each other with the head pointing it’s water stream straight out (trying to poke each other’s eyes out!)
Unfortunately after a couple summers one of the other neighbour kids got a slip and slide and his parents gave it a big plastic tarp extension (was it you Nephratari?) and the clown was abandoned. 🙁
The made up games were the best. We played tennisballtacklefootball quite often.
Summer as a kid is truely a great time. For the most part those are the only days that we did not have a care in the world. It was the only time in my life were I was not under some kind of work or school obligation (or stress). And that scar on the chin thing is so so true. I fell getting out of a pool and had some stiches. My family teased me that I had not been to that er yet and I just had to check it out. But the story behind that is long and is more of a x-mas vacation from hell story. If you ever post some thing that relates you might get to read it.
I always wanted a slip’n’slide! My mom always said “Ask Santa to get you one for Christmas.” Of course, by the time our Canadian Christmas rolled around, Outdoor water toys were the furthest thing from my mind!!! Probably saved my parents a lot of money. She was a smart lady, my mom!
By the way, WAY TO GO RED WINGS!!!
There is a movement in some of the towns around where I live to stop the ice-cream trucks from playing their music. Sure, its annoying. And sometimes its a real bother when they come down the street kind of late at nite. But, c’mon! Its classic! Its tradition! And how else are the kiddies going to know when to start begging for that buck to get an ice-cream cone? I hope some sort of compromise will come about.
There are certain things I looked forward to in the summer:
Ice-cream from one of those trucks mentioned above, frozen custard from the shack around the corner (nearly everyone in most reagions of South Jersey has one around the corner), arguing over where to get the best water ice or gelati, BBQ’s even tho I always eat too many hot dogs & hamburgers & get sick, trips to the shore (always worth dealing w/ the traffic on the Atlantic City Expressway or getting lost finding an alternative to highways), slip n slides!, wiffle ball, skateboarding (and hearing my grandmother say “Oh Ooooooo, Jennifer! I would never have gotten you that thing if I knew you were going to use it!”), playing video games on rainy days, and catching fireflies (or lightening bugs, as we called them).
Even as a kid, there was a lot of stress in my life. But summer always seemed to make it better. There was just something about that time. Something special about summer vacation.
Super Soakers?
meh.
Water Weenies.
RAWK!
Oh yeah! And the dogs! Summer meant running around w/ our dogs, watching them chase the lightening bugs, letting them eat the ice-cream we accidently dropped. They also loved to run thru sprinklers. Right now, tho, they are snoring on my bedroom floor. Hey, dogs get older, too.
…and the livin’ is easy….
BTW, we had one of those clown things too…you couldn’t be under it for too long or the hat would go flying…
Ah, summer. As a kid in rural upstate New York, there was no ice cream truck, no slip and slide, no neighborhood pool, and for that matter no neighborhood kids. Did I mention, RURAL?
But, I had my kid brother to play with. We got sent outside at first light, and came back in at dusk. There were garter snakes to find and tadpoles to catch. G.I. Joe and Barbie were spies and had many adventures. I think Johnny West may have joined in on a few.
And then, as Dale S. mentioned, there were fireflies to catch and put in a mayo jar. A piece of waxed paper with pin holes and a rubber band and you were set. Best of all, summer lasted FOREVER. Do you remember when summer lasted FOREVER? (heavy sigh)
Tonight (it’s after 10:30 p.m. here), as I was taking the dog out for her nightly constitutional, I saw a little flash. Could it be?? Then another. Yes, it was…I couldn’t help but grin out there in the dark. (my whole life in RURAL upstate NY) Then The whole sky lit up. We are in for a good thunder and lightning storm. Then I remembered Wil’s post was about summer today. Got me to thinking.
I may be just a tad older than a lot of “the posse,” but I love coming here and reading all the posts. I love the sense of community and the general sense of sarcastic humor. Now, I hope I don’t get flamed for waxing nostalgic about summer in the 1960’s, but the memories came flooding back with that one little firefly. (I try not to think about that little light just advertising his horny little firefly desires…) So, as Wil gets ready to turn thirty, I am getting ready to turn 42 at the end of the summer. It always bummed me out that I never got to celebrate my b-day at school. But that’s a whole nother story. I apologize for the lengthy post! Let the flaming begin…
For 4 consecutive summer vacations (’85-’88), I stayed with my Aunt, Uncle & Cousins in Oahu (they were stationed there by the Air Force). I always managed to lose track of the time, whether it being the time of day or the day of the week. It gets that way when you’re in Paradise. :]
This will sound silly and probably won’t make much sense, but for every summer that I was there, my vacation wasn’t complete to me unless I managed to spot a fiery red-orange cardinal. I’m not talking about one in a pet store; I’m talking about seeing one in the wild. I always spotted just one and it was always at the end of the vacation. Strange, huh?
Didn’t have a care or worry in the world. ;]
I sure do miss those days. *sigh*
Btw, Wil, my fiance
Dale S – Oh my gosh, I remember the fireflies….what memories !!
For me, I never had the clown thingy. It was either the water hose or…..THE FIRE HYDRANT !!! Yes, there was always the one cool dad in the neighborhood who could turn the fire hydrant on and we, as a neighborhood, would get soaked !!! Then of course there were the trips to the corner ice cream shop for rainbow sherbert ice cream cones, which we paid for with pennies, staying out playing kick the can in the middle of the street till dark when every mother, in sync, opened the front door and called out the names of her children, taking a bath, eating more ice cream, sitting in your underwear in front of the fan and watching M*A*S*H……….God, I wish I could go back !!!
Thanks for taking me there, Wil.
Vikki
Water Weenies freaking rule! Unless you are at the receiving end of one. Those things could peel the hair right off yer backside… if ya know what I mean…