Summertime....when the living was easy
It's time for ChicagoNow's Blogapalooz-hour.
It works like this...every month we get a topic and have an hour to write something about that topic. It's not mandatory. It's kind of like Family Feud. Sometimes you pass and sometimes you play (although have you ever seen anyone on Family Feud pass?). Okay Steve...we're gonna play. The topic is Summer.
Remember when you were a kid...around the middle of June. No more pencils. No more books. No more teacher's dirty looks. School's out for summer!
Hanging with your friends. Playing ball in the park. Cubs games during the day. Going to the pool. Looking at the girls at the pool. No responsibilities. Those were the days. Around August, you started stressing. School is right around the corner. I wonder who my teacher is going to be? I wonder who will be in my class? Will I have the same friends as last year? Will I make new ones? Can I handle nine more months until it's summer again? But then you'd head out with your buds and forget about this crap...until Labor Day.
Ahhhh yes....summer. Those lazy, hazy crazy days of summer! When it was so hot in the city that the back of your neck would be dirty and gritty.
But then you grow up. Sigh!
You get one of these job thingys. Here comes Summer. You're dressed up, sweating while riding a crowded train downtown. Sorry man...can't go to the Cubs game today, gotta work. And you're sitting in your office thinking how nice Summer was when you were younger. And you're thinking about your one week vacation and wondering if you should go somewhere or just spend it at home with the family? And you're thinking about how Summer was so much better when you were a kid.
But here's the thing....when you get really old (and I know 60ish isn't really old but stay with me here), you get to revert back to your childhood again. A lot of the responsibilities are gone. You aren't working as much, if at all. Your children are grown up and gone. You can have fun in the Summer again.
Street festivals. Cubs games. Outdoor concerts. Dinner al fresco. Walks at the beach. The zoo. On and on. When you live in a cold weather winter city, those are the things we long for. Those are the things that keep us going and keep us living here.
Summer and our life experiences have a lot in common. They pass and then they come around around again. Yep...it's that damn Circle of Life thing. Hakuna Matata!
Cmon...you really didn't think I was going to play Hakuna Matata, did you? About a year ago I wrote a post about Songs of Summer. Here ya go.
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