Summer's Simple Pleasures

What is summer all about? The diner back home will be full of youths trying to be hot with Wildroot and Vaseline in their hair while they stay cool with Italian Ices and Carvel. But I'll be in a place where you'll need a jacket at night. I won't be going for Carvel but Dairy Queen right across from the lake, if we're good. I'll be sneaking Craven As and Matinees in the park whenever I can. I don't know why I even care that my Aunt and Uncle know that I smoke, but I do. I started a 34 year smoking habit right there and there was something extra special about those Canadian cigarettes and the cool summer nights. I'll be exploring the grain elevators at the dock, getting out there by walking across a railroad trestle. I never stopped to think that if I fell into the bay, I'd be a goner since I couldn't swim, but when you're a kid, you don't think about these things. It was right around this time that I came to realize that I was happiest by myself, exploring different areas. I would walk through the same areas every ten months or so because I spent my summers here, but ten months is a long time when you're a kid and even the same areas needed exploring once again. In the first few years of my summer visits, I couldn't wait to get back to New York. I missed the action, the activity, the crowded streets. But in later years, I came to dread the return home. It was like going from an open world, to one behind a wall. As an adult, it surprises me to realize that my it never occurred to my relatives to offer me a year round home. Maybe it did occur to them, but it was just too big of a deal for them and they didn't want me to miss the smelly subway, the hoods at school and the crap at home.

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