Time Magazine recently featured a cover story called The Case Against Summer Vacation.
So in response, I put together some things I miss about childhood summers. I don’t know if those dog days helped or hurt my academic progress, but I sure loved them. Here’s why:
- Playing outside all day . . . and only occasionally having to tell my mom where I was.
- Living in a time and place where we didn’t have to lock the front door.
- Catching fireflies by hand and bringing them inside.
- Inspired by Mutual Of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom, getting together with my friend Davey Baird and making up our own show, Talbot & Davey’s Wild Kingdom.
- With that same friend . . . using trash cans as drums and tennis rackets as guitars, we created an outdoor rock band called The Two. Then one time I left a racket outside, it rained overnight, and the racket — a vintage wooden model of course — was warped and ruined. I got in trouble and that was the end of The Two.
- When I got a bit older, I used to love playing tennis in Dallas’ 100 degree heat. Today I can’t imagine even walking in such heat but back then I felt like it brought out the best in my game.
- As a teenager, being able to go to a movie in the middle of the week. Ahhhh.
What was it like when you were a boy — or girl — of summer?