When I was a kid growing up in southern Vermont my summers were filled with weeding gardens, bailing hay and cutting firewood. Excluding the occassional tomato fight that would breakout in the two acre garden, it was pretty much a non-event. It was however my life. Oh.... how my childrens' summers are so dramatically different.
Kinsey, my five year old goes to summer camp that has every activity that I could only dream of as a kid. Her days are filled with Chuck E Cheese, science fairs, movies (at a real theatre), pony rides, swimming pools, baseball games, roller skating, bowling, steamboat cruises, bouncy houses, ice skating, minitaure golf, water parks, Build A Bear, Ollie Koala's, semi-pro baseball games, etc..... The somewhat disappointing aspect of all this is that some days she comes home and has found her day boring. I'm thinking, weed a garden in 90 degree heat for five hours straight and then talk to me about boring. Her experience of "boring" is no where close to mine. Of course, with that said, my experience of boring is, I'm sure, not what my parents experience was. Laboring for five hours in the hot sun was childs play compared to my Dad's summertime experiences. He would say " you still had a good five hours to play". He really thought we as children were living on easy street.
It's a bit odd and amusing to me. When I look back now on those days of drudgery cutting wood, mowing lawns and weeding gardens those memories now (thirty five years later) verge on Rockwellesque. It was pure Americana that I lived and breathed every day. Reflecting back on those summertime childhood memories, I feel only joy and peace. It was a simple, pure way of life.
In our constantly changing world, I believe that my daughters will look back on their summer vacation in a similar way. It's not so much the activity of each day. It's the unconditional love expressed that makes it so wonderful. I knew that no matter what the day held, as "boring" as the chore that day might be, at the end of the day I could go to our house, have a hearty meal with my family and bask in the warmth of love and enjoy the security of home. That was the one thing that made every day so completely wonderful. Who needs Disney when you have that?
At the end of this month, Alicia and I will take our daughters Kinsey and Riley on a weeks long vacation to Daytona Beach. I'm looking forward to every day, every minute of our family experience. But I know that the real joy of childhood is not in an upscale resort (although that is loads of fun). The real joy of childhod is knowing that you are loved, that you will always have an unyielding proponent for you no matter what. I had that, my children have that. We are so, so , so fortunate. Have a great summer vacation.
