Summer breeze

Ah, summer. It’s almost here. And as I look back on the summers of old, I realize that I am about to embark on a new era of summers for me. I think pretty much everyone’s summers are packaged into convenient blocks of time that change as you go through life. Here are mine:
SUMMER ERA 1: Do nothing. This is when I was a first born and up until I was 4 or so. I have no recollection of this. Plus, I wasn’t in school and couldn’t hold down a job, so I guess I just kinda sat around. My parents could have had a chimp for four years and it would have been the same. Except they could have probably taught the chimp to vacuum.
SUMMER ERA 2: Awareness. This is the time you start to become aware of summer. It also the time you are still unaware of sunburn and dehydration. My mom started most every summer morning this same way:
MOM: Kids, come on! It’s a beautiful summer day!!!
KIDS: (running out the back door) YAY!!!!
MOM: (SLAM. Click.) Suckers.
We would pretty much spend the entire summer outside, tromping through the woods around my house. I would let my kids do that, but those woods are now subdivisions, and I am guessing some of those folks wouldn’t appreciate a tree fort like the days of old.
SUMMER ERA 3: Hello, driver’s license. That made summer infinitely more fun even if the bulk of driving consisted of driving to and from the pool. And for what it’s worth, I still think that the age for getting a driver’s license should be somewhere around 35. I recall my friends and I would sometimes hop in the car and crack the windows just enough to be able to breathe and drive the few blocks to the pool. We had convinced ourselves that the water would feel SO good after having been in the super hot car that it would be worth it to have traveled in a motorized crock pot.
SUMMER ERA 4: College. Welcome freedom. I usually stayed at college, working and taking classes. For two summers, I worked as a counselor for incoming freshman showing them the ropes. Each of my freshmen learned Mike’s three rules of college to live by: (a) Just go to class and you’ve won half the battle (b) It’s OK if don’t know what you’re going to be when you grow up; you probably won’t for at least a decade and (c) make sure you ask someone to go on a date while she’s standing in a crowd of her friends and can turn you down very publicly. Trust me, the rest of your year will seem fine in comparison.
SUMMER ERA 5: After college. This was the time I had some realizations to grasp, the main one being that I only got two weeks off a year, if I were lucky. Bye-bye, summer break. Gone. Forever. Or at least until I (a) win the lottery or (b) land that seven-figure job, which was no doubt in my plans.
SUMMER ERA 6: Small kids. These were the summers of firsts for me as a parent. I took my kids to the beach to be terrified of waves for the first time. I let them run around barefoot so that they can step on a piece of glass and cut their foot for the first time. I let them take that first dip in the pool, so they can feel what it’s like to go into a gigantic bath, and since normal sized baths are such a hoot, they can have their first outdoor bath tantrum.
SUMMER ERA 7: That’s where we are now. The kids are definitely in Summer Generation 2. Parker is out of school, and Allie can see the summer finish line. They cannot wait for having an entire summer to themselves. It’s almost as if they can hear it calling. And it’s saying, “Kids, come on! It’s a beautiful summer day.”
(SLAM. Click.)