Oh no, I’m not stepping on any copyright, but
I bet you’re humming!
I really wanted to post something serious and
writerly this month. Something worthy of Writers Who Kill. I tried, I started
at least ten wonderful posts. They died. Hum, does that fit with the Writers Who
Kill theme? Nah. Not really, the deaths were neither mysterious nor
unexplained. They died, you see, of boredom.
This is Memorial Day weekend. A serious and
hopeful double-header for my friends and family during my school years that
still permeates my senses. Serious because the weekend commemorates the
sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of men and women across the decades in the
service of their country. Fun because it’s the start of the crazy, lazy, long,
dreamy, days of summer!
The halcyon days of pools, beaches, and
amusement parks opening are long gone. My brother and I no longer argue over
who controls the radio knob. Me listening to WABC (Cousin Brucie!) in the brief
time between parade and fireworks, or him, listening to the roar of race cars
at the Indy 500. I can still smell the fried chicken competing with the scent
of fresh cut grass and the excitement of waiting for the fireworks to begin. If
we were lucky, we had places on the hill where we could see into the stadium.
As dark fell, the floor of the local high school stadium became a fairyland of sparkling
lights telling the story of the revolution, as George Washington, Thomas
Jefferson, and the White House swirled in colors that seemed to ignite one from
the other. As they faded to darkness, Old Glory sprang to life in front of the
scoreboard and the first of the skyward explosions took off. The show never
varied, and it never ceased to awe.
Memorial Day was almost as much fun as
Christmas. It marked, after all, the end of a school year. A far more important
year to a kid then the turn of a calendar year. Nothing would ever be the same.
You were going to the next grade. Huge questions loomed for the fall about
teachers and classmates. That was the future. Summer was the present. It was
the perfect time to make changes, reinvent yourself, rededicate yourself, make
new habits, learn something new and exciting, and move ahead and figure out
what to do over.
As Memorial Day approaches I still have that
same feeling of pent up excitement building. Anything is possible, and frankly,
2017 so far, well, it’s been pretty harsh. I could use a do over. How about
you? Nothing done will change, but maybe, just maybe 2017 redux will get
better, and better, and better.
See you at Palisades! I’m riding the coaster again
this year, but this time—up front!
