Lazy, Hazy Days?

[Eamonn 61]

" Six more days of School

Six more days in this old dump

and we'll be home tomorrow!

Five more days in ...."

I love spring, going out over the fields with Rory, even when there is still a frost in the air is about as close to heaven as I'm ever going to get.

But summer was made for kids.

Summer is the best time to be a kid.

OJ, along with a good number of his fellow Ship-mates will be working at summer camp, dealing with all the joys and sorrows that being on staff brings.

They will bask in the warm days and the Independence that being away from home brings.

Camp will become their world, no TV, No newspapers, no teachers, no parents.

We have a busy summer. A regatta this weekend, OA weekend the week after, Conclave, Canoeing trip on the Mon. Sailing the Chesapeake a week kayaking in Georgia and a hike in the Laural Hill Mountains along with days sailing at Yough Park Dam.

Some of the guys are off to NOAC.

So all in all they have a busy summer.

I hope we find time to slow down and enjoy the simple joys of summer.

Sitting on the river bank with bare feet in the cold water. A big bowl of ice cream, a ride on a roller-coaster. Reading a book under a nice shade tree.

Last year we had the Jamboree. Talking with the kids that went, they seem OK not remembering the heat and the stuff that didn't work. All of them want to go back.

This summer is going to be great. I know that I'm really looking forward to it.

Sadly poor Rory will be spending a little more time than he might like in the Pampered Puppy Palace. But I'll do what I can to make up for it.

Eamonn.

Have a happy and safe holiday.

 

[scoutldr 732]

As we wax nostalgic, I am reminded that times are different now. The days of kids having the months of June, July and August to just do what the mood demands are over. We used to get out of school around the first week in June and didn't go back until the day after Labor Day. The days in between were unstructured, save for the week at Summer Camp or family vacations (which my family never did). Wake up around 8, wolf down a pop tart and glass of juice, grab your bike and head out for the day. Mom didn't see me again until 5 pm which was dinner time and Dad got home from work(5 pm, not 5:05). Nowadays, both parents work and the concept of year-round schools is spreading (the parents love it!). My coworkers who are parents of younger children are wringing their hands about now, trying to figure out what to do with Junior for the summer. Gotta get the day care, day camps and computer (or horse or space or you-name-it camp) lined up and paid for. Some get shipped off to Dad for the summer and it's his problem. Some are left to their own devices at home, and the parents are distracted all day wondering what kind of trouble they are getting into.

 

I realize that some parents don't have a choice and have to work. But some choose to work just to support an affluent lifestyle. Families do not raise their children any more...they hire people to do that so they can have satellite TV, a $400,000 mortgage, two car payments, boats, jet-skis, cruises, a vacation home at the beach, and eat out 6 times a week (we're too busy to cook,you know).

 

It can't be done, you say? We did it. I was a mid-grade civil servant through the 80's and 90's and my wife stayed home until our second son was in middle school. Then she went to work as a School Nurse at half the pay of a hospital nurse (which requires rotating shifts and weekends). No cable TV, drive 10 year old used cars, cook and eat at home as a family, and do things that are fun, but free. I passed up promotions which would have required relocating, so that we could remain in our hometown 5 miles from the grandparents. My two sons had real summers, like we used to have, going fishing with Pop-Pop, both parents home every night, and they both grew up to be fine young men who never got into trouble. I can't help but think that it was related to the choices my wife and I made. We're not rich and I don't have the material things that my coworkers seem to have amassed. The grandparents have all passed on but one, who is now living with us. I was able to be with them and care for them as they lived their last days. I have no regrets. We're still together and happy.

 

Is the world better off today? I think not. I really fear for the future generations.

 

Sorry for the soapbox.