From Where I Sit

By Pat Spilseth, Columnist

It’s only mid-August, but already crisp, cool mornings make me feel like fall is the air. August  means encroaching school days are creeping into summer’s freedoms.

Savor the joys of summer; don’t let days of sunshine and joyful activities escape too soon!

I remember favorite SUMMER JOYS of kids in the fifties and sixties:

– tanning with baby oil or Coppertone

  lotion

– white zinc oxide on noses to prevent

  burning

– new swimsuits

– nose-plugs

– teen hops at Lakeside ballroom

– Buck Nite at the Alex drive-in with

  a car and trunk filled with kids

– drive in movies with dad’s car

– short shorts

– band concerts in the park

– campfires

– parties at Halderson’s Point

– apple raiding

– talking with girlfriends on the stone

  wall at Mount Lookout

– canoeing

– waterskiing

– biking around the lake

– daring to skinny dip

The list goes on and on and on…

Summer meant lazy days at the beach, riding my bike to the park or a picnic at the Giant Chair and Table.   We’d 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.

At the park, I’ll swing my tennis racquet wildly and lose yellow balls over the fence.  We’d have a contest to see who could pump furiously and swing highest to the sky, screaming with glee and burning our seats on the sun soaked slide, we’d zip down the slippery slide and race to the merry-go-round, climb the monkey bars and bounce friends on the tilt-a-whirl…we’d laugh uproariously~

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

When the sun goes down teens 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 Don and Phil Everly Brothers 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.

On sultry summer nights, Mount Lookout was the perfect spot for teenagers to gather to talk and enjoy the dark evening settling over our hometown.  I remember driving up the big hill and sitting on the stone wall.  Mary, Martha, Linda and I would catch glow worms in glass Mason jars with punched pinpricks in their lids.  Kids were attracted to Mount Lookout: it was a spot to be away from parents, chores and school.  We could hang out there and talk about boys, the woes of tests and upcoming graduation.   High above our everyday world, we could freely discuss the latest worrisome concerns dominating our teenage minds.

Meanwhile, we savored those delicious summer days that were ending.  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 love summer and dream of life’s possibilities…..

* * * * * * * *

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