Summer vacation was officially over.
Mom always said that vacation wasn’t over until I went back to school. I argued that it ended at 3 o’clock on the Friday afternoon before school started because I’d have the weekend off anyway. Mom said we’d have to agree to disagree, whatever that meant.
I remembered a night three months earlier when I lay awake all night, my mind filled with thoughts of everything I wanted to do over the summer.
Three months. Wasted.
I went to my room and pulled a writing table out from under my bed. The first page was my Christmas list from the year before. I got two of the things I’d written down, but I also got underwear, even though it wasn’t on my list.
On the second page I’d written down the Twins’ 1967 opening day line-up. I also cut a picture of Harmon Killebrew out of the newspaper and taped it onto the page. The tape was already turning yellow.
I flipped to a new page and started to make a list. I tried not to think of it as homework … not at 3:04 Friday afternoon … even though Monday morning I’d probably have to write an essay on “How I Spent My Summer Vacation.” If I just wrote “I wasted it!” the teacher might not be happy. I know mom wouldn’t.
So I began to write.
Rode my bike. (A sparkly green StingRay. I rode it a LOT.)
Went to the cabin. (Every weekend unless it was raining. Dad got grumpy when it rained at the cabin.)
Played baseball. (I never told anyone, but every time I came up to bat I pretended I was Harmon Killebrew.)
Watched TV. (Our first color TV! Andy Griffith looks a lot different in color.)
Caught turtles. (We caught six painted turtles at the lake and kept them in a tub behind the house. Mom said we’d have to let them go in the creek once school started.)
Listened to the Twins. (I got a transistor radio for Christmas last year. I listened every night in bed unless the game started really late.)
Built a model car. (I painted it with the purple paint mom had left over from painting the bedroom.)
Went camping. (I wanted to camp near the creek, but dad said I’d have to stay in the back yard. It started raining in the middle of the night so I came inside and slept in my bed.)
Listened to music. (There’s this new group, The Monkees …)
That was it. Three months, wasted.
I turned to a fresh page in my tablet and was about to start a new list called “Things to do NEXT summer”.
Hmmmm …
I turned back to the page I’d just written.
It was kind of a fun summer. Maybe I’ll just save this list and use it again next year.
I closed the tablet and slid it under my bed.
The clock on the stove said 3:52.
You know, I’m kind of looking forward to going back to school. But I can’t wait until next summer.
Dan Conradt, a lifelong Mower County resident, lives in Austin with his wife, Carla Johnson.
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