Summers of Yesterday

Remember when you were a kid? School just got out and you felt like you had all the freedom in the world. You’d go to baseball in the morning, grab something from the refrigerator for lunch (we never worried about getting a balanced meal if mom wasn’t home), and head out with your friends. There weren’t any cell phones, so you had to stop at people's house to see if they could come out to play. If your friend’s house was far enough away, you could always take your banana seat bike with the high handlebars and ride over there. And, if you were really cool, your bike had a playing card clothes-pinned in the spokes, so it made that motor sound. The really privileged kids had streamers hanging from their handle grips that flew in the breeze when they went really fast. Some girls even had white baskets on the front of their bikes with large daisies stuck in the front of the baskets. 

There was always that family in the neighborhood that had a big yard where all the kids would gather to play pick-up games with whoever was around. Kickball, hide and seek, freeze-tag, hide and tag, and ante eye over were just a few of the games. It was there that you learned about picking teams and not wanting to be “it”. You even learned how great it felt to finally be picked first for the team and how to rig the “einy, meiny, miney, moe” count so you didn’t have to be “it”.

Parents didn’t worry about their kids, knowing that when they got hungry, they would show up to eat.  And, it seemed like everyone in the neighborhood had supper at the same time because one mom would call and all the kids would scramble in the direction of their own house for supper. In June, the days were long and allowed you to sleep in, because, if you were old enough, you got to stay out after the street lights came on. Night games of hide and seek were the best, especially when all of a sudden you noticed that the neighbor girl was cuter than you remembered her last summer.

It seemed that summer was best before the Fourth of July. Not long after the fireworks faded, the yard games didn’t hold the same appeal when the sun was high in the sky. Biking the alleys and sidewalks became monotonous and it seemed like your favorite friend was always at his cabin. You started waking up early and nagged your mom with talk of being bored. All she would tell you was to mow the lawn, wash the car, or do some other chore you didn’t really want to do.

And, when the sun started setting earlier again, you couldn’t quite remember the excitement you felt for school to be over because you were so anxious for it to begin again. Ahh, nostalgia.