I was stopped at a red light where a
crossing guard herded the kids across Newport Ave yesterday. This
would be the two schools of Potter-Burns and Goff Jr High which are
next to one another. It then clicked in me that the kids are almost
out for the summer. Lucky bastards, I remember that feeling.
Actually, the last week
of school was great. That last week nothing was accomplished except
turning in books, cleaning lockers out or just sitting in the
classroom listening to teachers tell their life's story, some of it
racy as hell too. I remember on locker clean out day in Goff. The
janitors placed 55 gallon garbage cans strategically in the halls and
the principal would call out wings, one by one, to fill the halls
with us dumping everything we had in our lockers into the cans. The
trash pile must've been immense. John S. had his balls busted for
having rotting food in his locker. Cindy K. took down all the
mini-posters of every boyband/heart-throb of the late 70's in hers.
My locker? I wasn't a pig though I carefully took down a National
Lampoon picture of hang gliding. The pic showed a guy actually
hanging by his neck as the glider slid off into the sunset. You could
put these stuff in your locker back then w/o having the school social
worker press secret buttons to alert authorities.
In elementary school, I can remember
how we kids would list out all the great things we'd be doing on a
summer vacation. I swear on our first day off though, we just lazed
around the house or yard, not doing any of those things we thought
we'd be doing. Broken promises...but still, the first day being spent
being unproductive as hell was nice as well. Boredom of that would
eventually motivate us towards “doing something.” As a kid then,
I spent hours in the park woods, or a mini-mall near our
neighborhood. I didn't realize it then but I and our group, were mall
rats. It wasn't the Galleria in Sherman Oaks, California though, but
it had a Micky D's and other places we could waste our youthful hours
at.
Leaving sixth grade to go onto the
seventh in a new school was a biggie. I knew I'd never see some of
the kids I had known for over seven years, that made me feel bad.
Also provoking a melancholy was leaving the school itself. It was a
home. Though the good thing was I left the school in the top 10%
so...Score!!! What I didn't expect was that Goff would be even more
liberal and loosey-goosey than the grammar school I was leaving. The
height of 70's hadn't happened yet and I was about to experience that
in spades.
The last day of Jr High school was
similar to leaving grammar school but with less feeling of loss. I
was headed to a Catholic school vs. the rest of my classmates who
were headed to Tolman. I knew I wouldn't see many of them ever again.
Oh well, that's life. I did eventually run into some of them for a
few minutes and realized no one ever really changes, personalities
remain the same. My hope for that summer was more adult, to sleep
late as many days as I could. That was the summer too of kissing Gail
for the first time. Several years prior to that, we were punching
the hell out of one another on the street. She bloodied my lip and I
had gut punched her and took her breath away. The kiss provided more
satisfaction and a few other discoveries I never knew about until
then.
High school graduation is always a big
event, even it you graduate from the bottom of the class. You've
finally did it. After the ceremony and home, I was sitting on my
couch, with the realization of 13 years worth of schooling was over
and done with. It felt weird to tell the truth. I was now marginally
an “adult” but didn't feel like one. The graduation and ceremony
of it all soon felt anti-climatic as the days wore on. I spent that
summer working my summer job (and another 'other' summer job) and
getting gooned in the park with our crew at the One Way, a parking
lot situated near the pond. I believe that was the summer I first
went to Block Island as well..yes, it was, because I got the worst
sunburn of my life on the beaches there. College loomed on the
horizon but it didn't worry me in the least, nor was I hoping for
anything great either. I had been to RIC many times as a young teen
in it's Rathskellar as a roadie for my brother's band, so I knew a
few things about it already.
The last day of college...there really
isn't one. College's last days sort of peter out as there is no real
set date where all of you leave. Final exams are
scheduled according to your particular classes, graduation
formalities and information is handled by mail and the graduation
itself comprises a small city of hundreds of other people you've
never met. You end up hanging with the few people you do know. After
that graduation, I didn't feel as if “something” ended because I
was fully involved in an adult life that included a job in my field
and a continuation of keeping in touch with college friends and
watching my blue collar Pawtucket ones grow into their fields as
well. I felt then, I was an adult. Things were
moving along nicely.
There was another “last day of
school” for me and I was grateful for it. After spending year upon
year of working like every other adult schlep, I was laid off on a
May 1st and found myself looking at a full summer off.
That was in 2012 and I spent that summer recreating some of my youth
and one hell of a health kick where I lost 40lbs. I reconnected to
old friends due to having the free time and found that the beach
still exists. That first week I was laid off...I felt like I was 10
again. The freedom! The lazy days of getting just barely anything
done! The decompression took a whole month but I enjoyed every bit of
it. By the end of the summer, a girl I knew complained, “You're
turning into a hippy, you know!” I was and liked it. Longer hair
and I de-evolved back to that 14 year old self I once was. I loved
that 14 year old kid and met him again! As I remember it too, my
clothing style had changed to fit the times, Classic Beach Bum and
barefoot wherever I could. Add to that barely combed, wind tousled
hair and a forever 4 day old beard. If I thought of it, I'd wear
white again. There was a time when I did.
This was only possible because I knew
how to count. I had squirreled enough money away and thanks to a sort
of lavish severance package, I could get away with it. Adult summer
vacations now require the time off...and the money to keep the ship
sailing forward.
Another summer is here and the other
night, I was on my front steps around 9 PM, just lazing when I
noticed the northwest sky, it was glowing in a turquoise color. 9 PM
and it's still light out...cool! Yes, I'm working and the bills still
need to be paid, but hell, it's summer.
**
To give you a great representation of
what most kids do during summer, I give you Sister Mary Elephant. Click and isten to the duller sounding kid explaining how he spent his summer.
Sister Mary Elephant
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