Welcome back! Wow, has it been a month already since last time we posted? My calendar says it has, which means we’re well into June. How’s the weather treating you where you’re at? It’s HOT in Texas. Just like always.

Which brings me to the topic of today’s post: Tell us about your summer vacations as a kid.

We always went to my grandma’s house in Florida. I loved visiting there because my grandma watched Young and the Restless and let me eat Cocoa Puffs for breakfast. She had porch lizards in her sun room and lived on a canal. A spoonbill named Charlie stayed in her yard and I couldn’t wait until I was taller than he was, which finally happened when I was seven. The year I turned eight was when my grandpa made me start baiting my own hook when we fished off the dock in the back yard, and let me tell you–it wasn’t until much later that I realized making myself stick my hand a five gallon bucket of live shrimp was good preparation for being a mom. More on that in another post.

My grandpa always gave me money when my mom wasn’t looking and took me to the mall, where I bought treasures like key chains and bracelets. Near the mall was a farmer’s market called the Red Barn and that’s where we got corn. Dinner always took place at the smaller table out on the lanai because the fancy table was for company. I could never go in the formal dining room without the drapes catching my eye because that was where–as my mom whispered to me once–my grandma had sewn her diamond engagement ring into the hem so thieves wouldn’t find it.

I didn’t have cable TV growing up so my grandma’s house was where I saw my first Billy Idol video. I didn’t understand (then or now) why in the world he had eyes without a face or, for that matter, why Bryan Adams wanted to run to me. The year I was going into sixth grade, my parents let me fly to Florida by myself and the seats had the radio in the arm rest. I got headsets and listened to Duran Duran’s Rio and The Tubes’ She’s a Beauty four hundred and eighty seven times. That started my thirty five year love affair with new wave, which is still going strong, thank you kindly. The beach is still my favorite place in the entire world to go. I still have shells from the beach near my grandparents’ house that I picked up when I was younger than my son is now.

As everything does, things eventually changed. My grandma died when I was in my twenties but my grandpa held on. Visiting him in his condo was…hard. Grandma’s ring is in my jewelry box now, still not being worn. I get my corn from Kroger and anytime someone slips me money on the sly, it’s my husband because I forgot the tooth fairy was supposed to visit my kid that night. But every once in awhile, when no one’s around, I watch old episodes of Young and the Restless and eat Cocoa Puffs. Just because.

Want to here more summer vacation stories? Clickity click below!

**Writer Wednesday Participants

Jamie Wesley – Kat Cantrell – Priscilla Kissinger –  Kay Hudson – Pamela Kopfler – Carol Post – Sharon Wray – Natalie Meg Evans – KD Fleming – Kristen Ethridge – Kathleen Bittner-Roth – Wendy LaCapra