Where did the time go?

When I was in grade school, we lived in a split level house on Oak Drive.  It was complete with Harvest Gold appliances and matching linoleum. We even had green shag carpet in our downstairs bathroom.  When I think back on that house, what pops in my head are the days of summer break.  The memories of those days are swirled together like a twist cone (a Kohr Brothers orange and vanilla cone- the one that taste like a dreamcicle-ohh-lala).  Each of the memories melded together where you can’t tell where one started and the other ended.

You got up every morning with the intention of getting your tail-end outside as quickly as possible.  And the rule was to be home before the street lights came on. My friends on our street were Elaine, Cathy and Keri.   We played in the creek, which was against every parent’s rules.   We laid in the grass looking for four leaf clovers and blowing on blades of grass to see who could whistle the loudest.  We would suck on honeysuckle convincing ourselves- Yep, this really taste like honey.

When no one could play, I’d climb the maple tree in our front yard.  I was the best spy.  I could sit in that tree for what I thought was hours.  Through the break in the leaves, I would watch the neighbors come and go. A tad creepy in hindsight.

Then one day for my birthday, I received the ultimate… a baby blue and white bike.  As I remember  that day, a spotlight of sun broke through the clouds and the blue glittered banana seat and handle bar streamers sparkled like stars in the heaven.  I think the angels broke out in song.  This was not just a beautiful bike, this was freedom.     This is when I started stealing change from my Dad’s change dish on his dresser.  Us girls would ride our freedom machines to the Marstellers.  For a mere 25 cents, you buy a Marathon bar.  If you don’t remember a Marathon bar, it was a braided looking candy bar of caramel covered in chocolate.  And even if you could only scrounge a nickel or a dime, you could still get Smarties or Candy Cigarettes.  If you got a good Candy Cigarette, it had a bunch of powdered sugar and you could make a couple of good “puffs”.
Every day of summer just happened.  You did what the day and your heart desired with no plan and no agenda.

If you wonder why you haven’t heard much from me in Nov and Dec that because I’ve had a true summer break.  There no agenda and each day was going where the day took you.  That could be collecting slugs with my nephew or hanging out with family, watching the game and throwing back a couple of cold ones.
November was an easy breezy month that very few of us get to experience as adults.

But alas, after Thanksgiving the time with family was over and we moved on to the next phase of our travels- a 21 day Caribbean, 15 island cruise in the month of Dec.   In the next couple installments find out….what kind of people can take a 21 day cruise?    Where to find the “best cool smoke” in the islands?  The trials and tribulations of making towel animals.