June Dreams

School’s out! No more daydreaming about summer vacation, lazy days at the beach, riding my bike to the park or picnic at the Giant Chair and Table. We’ll test the strength of the vines at Monkey Vine Palace, hoping the big kids haven’t broken all the vines we love to swing on imagining ourselves as Tarzan and Jane swinging through the jungle.

Time to find furry pussy willows in the woods and dip my toes in first creek. Usually it’s freezing cold…BURRRR! At the park, I’ll swing my tennis racquet and lose yellow balls over the fence. We’re have a contest to see who can pump furiously and swing highest to the sky. Screaming with glee and burning our seats from the sun soaked slide, we’ll zip down the slippery slide and race to the merry-go-round, climb the monkey bars and bounce friends on the tilt-a-whirl…

That was summer fun for me when I was a kid growing up in Glenwood.

When the sun goes down kids would go apple raiding at a tree near the park owned by an angry older woman who did not like kids messing with her apples. Running from her yelling and shotgun threats, we’d  race to the park to listen to music drifting out of the open windows of the Lakeside Ballroom. When we were old enough, we’ll be sure to attend the teen hops to hear the smoothly crooning Everly Brothers Don and Phil sing “Cathy’s Clown” and dance close with a boy. Romance was in the air on those evenings of close dancing…   

By the time kids become seniors, our  heads would be filled with dreams about the next big step in life….would we choose college, trade or beauty school, enter the service to fly airplanes or sail the seas…life  offered new  and exciting adventures for all of us.  

Kids would congregate at Mount Lookout, sit on the stone wall and talk about hopes and fears for our next step in life. Leaving home felt like  a giant step forward to adulthood. Endlessly we dreamed and shared hopes of who we could become. Maybe we’d be teachers, nurses, airline stewardess, secretaries, bookkeepers, social workers or moms.  

Meanwhile, fireflies twinkled in the moonlight-filled, dark night high over our much loved hometown, hiding tears and fears of what would happen next…  May kids always dream of life’s possibilities for them…

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To contact Pat, email: pat.spilseth@gmail.com.