Summer is Flying By

Summer has always been a time of mystery to me. I remember the old Country Time commercials where they showed people sitting on front porches enjoying a cold glass of lemonade or children playing in the local swimming hole or father and son fishing from a bridge. My summers were never like that.

When I was five my mother went to work and I spent summers with babysitters. The sitters were only watching me and didn't have other children. I enjoyed reading and playing in the fields, but overall, summers were lonely times for me. I longed for school to be back in session so I could see my friends. When I was about 12, I started staying home alone. The upside of that was that I was in my own house and had more access to things that kept me occupied. Plus a couple of years, my parents got us a membership at a pool. They would come home at lunch and take me there for the afternoon. I loved those days spent swimming and among other kids.

We didn't take vacations when I was a child. I can remember a couple of short trips, but overall summers were just months to be endured until school began again.