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Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Endless Summer



When I was kid, I used to live for summer school vacation. It's when I was let of prison for an all too brief reprieve. As a little kid, summer seemed to last forever. When old enough to work summer jobs, summer got a whole lot shorter.

Before then, however, I had huge gobs of unstructured time. Not only did I have time, I had freedom to do things in it. My buddies and I would disappear into the woods, only to come back at dark. Our bikes would take us to local lakes, neighboring towns, and deep into the woods on logging roads. Today parents would be arrested for giving their kids such freedom. Back then, it was normal.

It saddens me to see how summer has changed for young people. Every minute of the school year is structured but summer is just as heavily scheduled. Little people are dragged from one supervised activity to another.

Kids that aren't shuttled around all summer spend day after beautiful day inside playing video games. The outside world isn't safe.


Maybe it's by design that those endless summer days are no more. Perhaps too many of us, having gotten a taste of freedom, wanted it in their adult life too. Now we should all be happy little drones who should feel lucky that we can work constantly without a vacation, never mind a whole summer off.

As for me, it's too late. Having tasted the sweet fruit of freedom I'll never be a model worker drone ever again.

-Sixbears

8 comments:

  1. No truer words were ever written...I second Gorges, Amen.

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  2. I spent most of my summer when a kid in the woods, too. I especially loved the woods at night. All the "tough" kids were afraid of it at night and I had it all to myself.

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    1. When I was a really little kid, my dad got me used to the darkness. Dark woods held no fears for me. Used to plan hikes around the phases of the moon to hike in moonlight.

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  3. The last day of any grade school and high school I had I was so overjoyed to know I did not have to rise at the butt crack of dawn, get dressed, breakfast walk like I was going to God knows where, home work and more work, when I earned money summer seemed to fly right by, we got to swim when the famlly time was at the public pool all the berry, and green bean pickers did..I babysat one summer made a ton in a nice doctors home the lady went to the country club one tiny little girl, tons of food, color tv and paid me cash and extra to unload the dishwasher which I did as fast as I could..got a bonus for showing up on time and always cheerful, I never picked berries again or beans..I saved my money up carefully to leave the state I had to live in after my Mom died young, the only foster home I enjoyed the people were not my religion and we were taken away I knew that I would flee that god-forsaken state to California where I was born and my elderly grandmother, college for me and work, but it was always sunny in southern calfornia and the people were great absolutely great..Now summers just come and go, we don't get too much sunshine when it does it is hot and humid and unrelenting, glad I had good times when I was younger and young, as one gets older one just enjoys simple pleasure, the seashore is wonderful and fish, oysters, crab, clams & hubs and childhood friends..simple pleasures!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  4. My son and his buddies left hours ago in their ghille suits for the woods. They informed me they were training for buds/ hell week. They are 10

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