All summer long.

 

“It was 1989, my thoughts were short my hair was long

Caught somewhere between a boy and man

She was seventeen and she was far from in-between

It was summertime in Northern Michigan.”

Today, as we hit a high of ten degrees…the thoughts of summer are top of mind, yet the likelihood of warm weather arriving soon couldn’t be any more unlikely. I live in the wrong area of the U.S. but that doesn’t mean we can’t look forward to the warm summer nights and the fun that goes along with my favorite season of the year.

I have loved summer since I was a kid. We could feel things starting to change usually around April. St. Louis is different than Chicago weather wise—-spring actually would begin to show signs and then suddenly summer would hit. If you have ever had the chance to experience a St. Louis summer, you know it is hot, humid, and can be miserable. I loved it.

But summer was much more important than the weather; it was baseball, bike rides with friends, and just hanging out. When school let out, we knew for roughly 3 months, we were in for fun, being lazy, and wondering if it would ever stop? It did.

As we got older, every summer we would go to Six Flags—at least one time. We would start saving up money, making sure we had a ride (we were underage) and because we were guys, we would talk about “what if we met some girls?” The first few times we went, we were about as likely to meet someone as we were to win the lottery; one reason was there was no lottery at the time and if we could have been any more dorky, it would have shocked me.

But whether we met anyone, we had a lot of fun when we went. We would go early and go on as many spin rides as possible—this was during the time of my life when I was able to handle them—-and then we would go do funny things that didn’t get us in trouble, but should have. For example, since I know you want one, here you go. It was really crowded during the summer, and we wanted to see if we could disrupt things. So, we would be walking and then suddenly one of us would start to blink. Then we would get on our knees and start raising our voices about the contact lens that popped out and couldn’t find.

After about five minutes, and many people on their knees trying to help, we would stand up, and announce, “Oh man, I forgot…I was wearing them today.” We would just walk away and laugh our heads off.  Although I will save it for another “Snap. Shot.” one time we did meet some girls…the problem was, we were a pack of 4 guys, and there were only 3 new friends we had met. 

The photo above was taken many years later at Six Flags north of Chicago. Just like I remembered from all of those years back, this ride spins you around and when you get off, you still feel the motion. The reason I took this photo while my kids were on it? I wouldn’t go on it because I knew I would be sick.

Thanks for stopping by.