The Editorial

    In case you missed it, summer began this past weekend. Most of us adults pay little attention to the change of the seasons. I wouldn’t have except I heard a Mom complaining that her ten-year-old had misplaced her digital planner.

    Her comment got me to thinking about a time when a kid didn’t need a schedule to make it through summer. Most activities were spur of the moment. If there was any planning, it was usually no more than the day before.

    It also got me to thinking about some things I wish I could still do but can’t because I’m too old, dignified, responsible, etc. Plus, some of the things are probably illegal, dangerous or hazardous to the environment. Worst of all, some don’t exist anymore.

Below is my list of things I would like to do this summer:

• Fly a balsa glider

• Slide down a hill in a box

• Ride in the back of a pickup truck

• Swim in a muddy creek

• Jump in the creek with my clothes on

• Not worry if I don’t have my clothes on

• Ride on a gravel road

• Play baseball without keeping score

• Go through the trash behind the stores

• Sit in a metal lawn chair on the porch

• Burn my bare feet on a sidewalk

• Smell the backwaters

• Drink from the artesian well at Robinson’s Crossing

• Eat more than two hamburgers cooked outdoors

• Have someone squirt me with a garden hose

• Squirt someone back with a garden hose

• Sleep outside without chickening out

• Go to Boy Scout camp

• Eat a burger from the swimming pool concession stand

• Not care what’s on TV

• Stay out late playing in the yard

• Catch lightning bugs

• Swing on the park swings

• Freeze Kool-Aid in an ice tray

• Get in trouble with a water balloon

• Buy gas for the lawn mower with pocket change

• Freeze ice cream with ice from the ice plant

    Every generation has special memories of summertime fun. Submit a comment below and tell us what you wish you could do during summer this year.