I don't know who decides when public schools start classes, but each year the kids seem to be going back to school earlier than the year before. Whatever happened to summer vacation?
That was the time to hang out with your buddies, ride your bike all day, swim, go to camp etc. Of course there was always the dreaded family vacation to endure also.
My sister is two years older than I am and, while I love her dearly now that I'm 54, I did not at the age of 12! If Cinderella had been a boy, it would have been me; although instead of three wicked stepsisters, I had one very mean real sister! Most of the time during the summer I avoided her wrath by being out playing with my friends. But for one week each summer I was doomed. That was when we took the twenty-hour, two-day car ride from St. Simons Island to Tulsa, Oklahoma, to visit my grandparents.
Butler Family Vacation
Fortunately, my sister, who graduated valedictorian in high school and cum laude at Vanderbilt, liked to read so she would always have a book or two to keep her busy. WHO reads books in the summer?! I would always sit behind my dad because, as any kid will tell you, when your dad is driving it's nearly impossible for him to reach directly behind to "yank your chain" when you misbehave.
Then there was "the line." You know “the line.” It’s that universal imaginary marker of territory in the backseat that divides siblings and incurs a punch in the arm if crossed. Of course that meant that by the time we reached Tulsa, my right arm was black and blue.
Ah, the memories… I still break out in a sweat if I see a Ford Country Squire Station Wagon. I think they call that Post Family Vacation Syndrome!
