when I was a kid...school was out and it could be and in many ways was some of the best times of my life....summer time
LA
LA
From the Movie "Where The Boys Are"
Just some thoughts:
THE BEST SUMMER
What’s the best summer you ever had?
Another Memorial Day has passed. When I was a kid growing up in Indiana, Memorial Day would mark the beginning of summer for most of us. School was now out and a whole new world would be opening up to us. Oh, those summer teenage years.
My wife and I spent the past month of February in Florida, something we have been doing now for the past few years. She loves Florida, especially the ocean, and I think some of this love for the beach goes back to when she was growing up. As a teenager she often spent part of her summers with a cousin who lived in Florida. When I say the words “Linger Lodge” to her it makes her smile. A certain oldies song will come on and again she smiles and says, “That reminds me of Linger Lodge.” She almost breaks into a dance. There are even some names that come to mind with the mention of this place. “Boy, he was a good dancer.” She has some special memories of certain ones and certain times spent there at this teenage hangout of the late 1950s.
THE BEST SUMMER
What’s the best summer you ever had?
Another Memorial Day has passed. When I was a kid growing up in Indiana, Memorial Day would mark the beginning of summer for most of us. School was now out and a whole new world would be opening up to us. Oh, those summer teenage years.
My wife and I spent the past month of February in Florida, something we have been doing now for the past few years. She loves Florida, especially the ocean, and I think some of this love for the beach goes back to when she was growing up. As a teenager she often spent part of her summers with a cousin who lived in Florida. When I say the words “Linger Lodge” to her it makes her smile. A certain oldies song will come on and again she smiles and says, “That reminds me of Linger Lodge.” She almost breaks into a dance. There are even some names that come to mind with the mention of this place. “Boy, he was a good dancer.” She has some special memories of certain ones and certain times spent there at this teenage hangout of the late 1950s.
I once heard the late wise philosopher from Georgia, Lewis Gizzard say:
“We were all sixteen and just finished our junior year in high school. My mother must have experienced a momentary mental lapse and allowed me and three friends to have her 1958 blue and white Pontiac to drive from Moreland, Georgia, to Daytona Beach, Florida.What do teenagers do in the late ‘50s at the beach? They look for girls and rock-n’-roll bands. When a child is eight years old and taken to the beach, he goes into the ocean and builds sand castles, and tries to toss a ball in a clown’s mouth. But when you are sixteen or seventeen, in keepin’ with the scriptures, you put away childish things.”
“We were all sixteen and just finished our junior year in high school. My mother must have experienced a momentary mental lapse and allowed me and three friends to have her 1958 blue and white Pontiac to drive from Moreland, Georgia, to Daytona Beach, Florida.What do teenagers do in the late ‘50s at the beach? They look for girls and rock-n’-roll bands. When a child is eight years old and taken to the beach, he goes into the ocean and builds sand castles, and tries to toss a ball in a clown’s mouth. But when you are sixteen or seventeen, in keepin’ with the scriptures, you put away childish things.”
Lewis said he met Kippy when the song, “Do You Love Me” was playing. He said they danced a fast dance, and then, thanks to the heavens above, they played a Johnny Mathis song, and they slow-danced. He kissed her; “A real kiss,” he said.
He went on to say that he and Kippy saw each other every night for that week. “We were free, we were young, and it was the most fun I think I ever had!”
What he was describing happened nearly forty years previous, but he still remembered. He said now he was too old for such beach trips and the music is much too loud. But the memories of Kippy and that time are not gone. Never.
Kippy, well, He says, “We promised to write, but you know about summer romances; today Kippy could be a grandmother. Time moves like molasses when you are young, but it rages like a river when you’re grown.”
He went on to say that he and Kippy saw each other every night for that week. “We were free, we were young, and it was the most fun I think I ever had!”
What he was describing happened nearly forty years previous, but he still remembered. He said now he was too old for such beach trips and the music is much too loud. But the memories of Kippy and that time are not gone. Never.
Kippy, well, He says, “We promised to write, but you know about summer romances; today Kippy could be a grandmother. Time moves like molasses when you are young, but it rages like a river when you’re grown.”
I once sat in the audience at the Polynesian Hotel in Hawaii listening to Don Ho and caught the last line of a song he was singing. “I’ll remember you… long after summer.” It’s true. There probably are lot of things we remember............ "long after summer."
I suppose most every one of us has had a “Kippy” in our past. Do you?
I hope the thought of a past summer brings you a smile. Hum…You ever wonder how your “Kippy” is doing today? Or if she ever wondered "how you were doing today?"
May 29, 2014
Keep on,
Larry Adamson
I suppose most every one of us has had a “Kippy” in our past. Do you?
I hope the thought of a past summer brings you a smile. Hum…You ever wonder how your “Kippy” is doing today? Or if she ever wondered "how you were doing today?"
May 29, 2014
Keep on,
Larry Adamson
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