Summers, like everything else, just ain't what they used to be

I remember when I was growing up, and everyone would look so forward to school being out for the summer. Back then (in the Stone Age) we would go to school from Labor Day until Memorial Day and summer was a full three months. AAAaaaaaaahhh! It was GREAT!! I can feel the hot, Texas sun, I can feel the cold, frigid air of the air conditioner, I can hear the loud cicadas, frogs and owls on the creek in our backyard almost in symphony. It was a lot simpler back then... You got up in the morning, ate Captain Crunch, called your friends on your land line phone, and stayed gone all day, often until the sun set and your mom started looking for you to come home and eat.

Dinner was always some delicious home-cooked meal, while the tv played 'Laugh-in' or 'Brady Bunch.' In my younger years, we headed to Durango, Colorado every year with a few other families to ride the Silverton antique train, and our dads would drink and drive their long station wagons, and race each other. Good times. We went to Ruidoso, New Mexico several times too since my parents loved either the mountains or the beach in the summers, and they loved the horse races.

My sister was pretty introverted and read books all summer, and my brother liked to build model airplanes a lot, until he got a little older, and then was always on his mini-motorcycle all over the land behind our house. At the back creek, my friends and I would climb trees and sit up there forever looking out on the world and talking about what we would do when we grew up. We built our girl forts and my brother and friends built their forts, and we would have 'wars' between the guys and gals (which usually was just chunking stuff at their fort.)

We would get on our bikes and ride and ride - I can still feel the air hit my face when I close my eyes. There were only 3 tv channels back then, and during the days it was soap operas until the afternoon, when Batman and some cartoons came on.
Now? Well, when my junior high age daughter has friends over, all they do is text, make You Tube videos on the webcam, get on the internet & Facebook, or play with the Wii. It's all electronic now. Yes, she's starting to venture out on a bike, but it's so much scarier than it used to be, but we try. They have access to a gazillion cable channels and can rent movies on the computer, tv or Blockbuster, so there's lots more access. We had Sunday night's show, Wonderful World of Disney, and now there's an entire Disney Channel. And now, almost all of the moms work, so there are no wonderful meals like I used to have, but a lot of Hamburger Helper and quick 20 minute meals. (Yes, I'm sorry that I'm so tired...) TV shows that play during meals are Glee, iCarly and Wizards of Waverly Place.

And her friends just don't have her back like they did in my day. They are so uber competitive, that if she does something cool, they are not happy for her, but only are jealous and try to bring her down. With 'friends' like that, who needs enemies? as the old saying goes. Too, the schools keep up sports camps and conditioning, and her dance school continues in the summers, so it's not a huge break from everything like it used to be. Cheerleading practice continues much of the summer, and life in the fast lane continues.
That's what I need to have embroidered on a pillow:

Life in the fast lane...