Things I Love About Summer Part 4

Summer Reading!!  Doesn't that bring back memories of being a kid and going to the public library at the beginning of the summer to sign up for summer reading?  That was always fun to get rewards for reading books in the summer.  I wasn't the best at reading a ton or getting many prizes, but the effort of opening a book on a rainy summer afternoon wasn't the worst thing in the world.  

When I made my way into junior high the motivation for reading waned a bit as I got my first job working at the local swimming pool hocking pop corn, Ding Dongs and soda in the concession stand.  But then, a neighbor introduced me to the X-Men and The Hobbit.  This was summer reading where the prize wasn't something a librarian gave me, the prize was imagination and discovering characters I could get behind.  In high school, summer reading got me through the Lord of the Rings trilogy and Isaac Asimov's Foundation series.  

Today, summer allows me the time to read books that aren't necessarily just for work.  Yes, I have a summer reading group with students that meets three times through the summer to discuss three books we have read.  Those books are a hit and miss on stories that I like, but the discussion with the kids are always fun and insightful.  Many times they convince me that I shouldn't have liked the book that I liked, and that I should have liked the books that I didn't.  I can never win.  

Then I get to the books that I really want to read.  Most of them fall into a few categories that I will never tire reading: Star Wars, fantasy (Forgotten Realms, DragonLance), graphic novels and comics.  I save the non-fiction for the school year when it feels a little more, scholarly.  

This summer I have continued my read-through of the X-Factor comic run of the 1990s.  I keep up-to-date with my current comics both in print and digital.  I finally started reading the classic X-Wing series from the 1990s.  I found Rogue Squadron by Michael Stackpole to be as exciting as watching the trench run through the Death Star.  What a great book!  I blew through it as I found it hard to put down.  

I am now, on July 19, between books and struggling to choose.  I am in the mood for fantasy but the lure of book 2 of X-Wing: Wedge's Gamble is really strong.  So, as I decide, I consume comics and graphic novels.  

This is one of the things I love about summer.  I get to read and read and read, take some time between books to decide what is next, and enjoy the real prize of great stories and good relaxation.  

Things I Love About Summer: Part 3

I am not one to sleep deep into the morning like 10:00 or 11:00, but sometimes it sounds really nice.  Often when getting up for work, I just wish I could go back to bed.  That is one of the things I love about summer, sleeping in or at least the idea that I could. 

There is something absolutely wonderful about the idea that, if I wanted to, I could just keep hitting
snooze and not get up on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or even Friday.  I love that about summer.  Or, what's better, not even setting an alarm at all.  

As mentioned above, I don't typically sleep much past 6:00 am on most days (even summer), but recently I slept deep into a morning to where I debated if I should just hold off about 30 minutes and have lunch instead of breakfast.  I must say, when I have a day like that, it isn't as much fun as I think.  Yeah, I feel more rested, but the guilt and thought that I lost half a day normally tortures my mind that it doesn't end up feeling great.  I have to wonder if other people (adults) feel that way.  

I know my children don't!!  They have no problem on summer break or weekends for that matter sleeping in until noon.  Actually, I can't complain, I remember doing that myself.  I was notorious for staying up late in my bedroom as a teenager making Dungeons and Dragons characters and dreaming of their heroics if I actually got to play them in the game.  I know, that sounds weird, but if you play the game, you know that for some people, making the characters is a large part of the fun.  I made so many characters late at night that while I played the game all the time with friends, there was no way most of those characters would ever see a dice roll for them.  But, I would stay up to the wee hours of the night doing that or reading a book (most of the Lord of the Rings trilogy was read either in a canoe or in the overnight hours), and I would easily sleep until noon.  

Noon was actually an important wake-up time during my teen years, because I would start work at 12:45 pm at the town swimming pool as a concession stand worker and later as a lifeguard.  On days I didn't work, it was not an uncommon occurrence that my mom would let my friends in the house to wake me up around 10:00 am to go to lunch or garage sale shopping or whatever else it was kids did in the morning in the summer during the decade of the 1980s.  

Even thought sleeping in isn't something I often do and even thought when I do it is often followed by a certain guilt or FOMO, just the thought that I could if I wanted to is one of things I love about summer.  

Things I Love About Summer: Part 2

Every year, a week or two after school has closed out for the summer, a vacant lot on what we will call the "main drag" of our little town and towns across the Midwest is filled with a traveling amusement park for the annual town festival.  There is something about these town festivals that I love even though I rarely attend them any longer.  

Growing up in Oswego, Illinois just outside of Chicago, we had Oswego Days later to be called Prairie
Fest where the main street of town turned into an outdoor shopping, eating, drinking, festival in the evenings and summer nights.  Music filled the streets of downtown with the municipal band playing in the park and later a rock and roll or country music band on the street near the sponsoring tavern.  Downtown shops put racks of clothes and tables of summer merchandise on the sidewalks, the fire station held some kind of water hose and bucket on a wire contest that I remember but had no idea what was happening other than a lot of water spraying all over.  The water brigade was welcome as it was normally sunny and hot.  I attended those festivals for years and years.  During my high school years, I participated in the annual Oswego Days parade as a Cub Scout and later marching in the band.  I sang solos and duets at Ice Cream socials during the festival, and I attended and rode the rides of the traveling amusement park in a field near the elementary school.  

Today, in the town I call home, we have the Good Neighbor Days renamed from the Cherry Festival after a tornado decimated the town in 2013.  It was a well intended name as it symbolized the unity of the community after the tornado, but people continue to call it the Cherry Fest confusing those who are not in the know.  It is kind of amusing and around our house we call it both names without blinking an eye.  

Even though I don't attend the festival any longer, it is still one of the things I love about summer.  My kids go the festival at night to hang out with friends and ride the rides, but the idea of festival has really changed over the years.  There isn't a parade any longer.  I don't see any bands or music on a schedule to attend.  There are the rides, a 5K run, and a pancake breakfast, but that is about it.  This is no shade on any committee or chamber of commerce, it reflects the society in which we live.  Has it been shaped by social media?  Maybe the COVID pandemic forever changed festivals, or maybe the national political divide has something to do with it.  Nevertheless, I still love the small town festivals despite the notable changes and lack of umph.  They are throwback to community and excitement for something good.  They are a throwback to neighborhoods and the community coming together for fun.  Perhaps they are a thing of the past, but who knows, maybe as the pandemic fades from memory and the political pendulum swings and maybe even the negativity and criticism that social media creates will settle, these little town festivals will continue to do what they are intended to do, bring communities together.  Maybe the bands will return to spread their music.  Maybe the parades with classic cars, fire trucks, and floats will return and people will be happy and excited.  

I think this is what I love about the small town festival.  It is hope for community.  It is hope to showcase the towns in which we live.  It is symbolic of our shared community and love of place.  For these things and more, it is one of the things I love about summer.  

One Thing I Love about Summer...Part 2 (2010)

One thing I love about summer is visiting Chicago! I never know what I will see in the city. This summer, early on a Sunday morning while walking to the starting line of the Rock and Roll Marathon, we stumbled upon the set of the Transformers 3 movie. What an amazing undertaking! They closed down about 2 blocks of upper Wacker Drive and brought in lots of destruction for what looked like a post-battle set. 

It appeared that the crew was setting up for shooting as members were moving props into place.  There was smoke coming from different areas of the set like from some of the cars that were upside down and on their sides.  There was "damage" to the side of one of the buildings.  It looked like something large had hit it about 2-3 stories up.  They must have worked all night to build up this scene as this street was open the evening before when we arrived in the city.  

About a block away after we had passed the scene, we saw what looked like extras in uniforms and other "official" looking costumes.  They appeared to be heading to the set with their coffee and breakfast pastries.  

All this work for what will probably be 5 minutes in the actual movie. It was amazing to see, and, sadly, they were all done for the day when we returned from the race that afternoon.  Oh well, surprises that we get to see when we visit Chicago in the summer!  

(Updated 7/27/25)