Summer Begins

I know that it isn’t the “official” beginning of summer, but June has established itself and it looks like we’re going to be hitting about 107 today, close enough to call it a start.  Another major indicator of it being the beginning of summer is I just finished watching “Stand by Me,” a classic summer movie.

My guess is most guys my age, which is to say those of us who grew up with The Beatles, Space Food Sticks, Captain Crunch, bell bottoms, Nehru Jackets and expressions like far out, cool, and groovy, can watch this movie and be brought back to the age of 12 or so. Give or take. 

Now I didn’t grow up in the fifties, in a rural town in Maine, or Oregon, pretty far from it to be precise, but, the experience is there, the friends that we had in those years before life came barreling at us a little faster and a little harder.

We were still riding our bikes with our fishing poles to Izaak Walton Park, or Wampum Lake, where we would do battle with Bluegill and Crappie. The ride to Wampum Lake was a little hairy, going around the backside of the Thornton Quarry, a little intimidated by the size and depth of it. Izaak Walton Park had better trails to ride on our Stingrays, but Wampum was better for fishing.

There was also hanging out at the Lion’s Club Pool. An all summer pass at that time was about $35 and with that minimal purchase our folks would know where we were all day.  We’d spend the day climbing the high-dive and perfected our cannon balls, jack-knives and inevitable belly-flops.

Another hobby that got extra attention in the summer was souping up our HO slot cars, changing types of tires, springs and bushings for more speed. It was time to get new sections of track, banked curves and squeeze lanes, and then dream up new layouts.

One friend had a great A-Frame fort in his back yard that included a loft. This thing would withstand any summer storms the Chicago area threw at it. Spending the night in the fort pretty much consisted of roaming the neighborhood all night, smoking corn-cob pipes. 

Summer is different now, in some ways.  Fortunately the magic is still there when I look for it.  The last sentence in “Stand by Me is, I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?

I’m fortunate; I still have a couple of those friends.