Nine Random Observations Re: Summer

“The first month of climatological summer was not very summer-like in the Northeast. Eleven of the twelve states in the region posted below-normal temperatures and above-normal precipitation in June.” – Northeast Regional Climate Center

Dennis and I are scheduled to leave for a week in Cape May in a couple of days, and the extended 10 day forecast ranges from partly cloudy to mostly cloudy to isolated T-storms. The most promising day offers a 20 per cent chance of rain.

Isn’t life all about perspective? So from that vantage point, I offer nine random observations about summer:

1) Lake Hiawatha, New Jersey -- where I spent summers from birth through age six in a white, two-story “log cabin” on Lake Shore Drive -- now has a Facebook page. Comments -- written by people who seem to have lived year round in this little hamlet outside New York City -- suggest the area today has the largest concentration of nail salons and pizzerias anywhere.

2) By age three, I lived to swim in Lake Hiawatha, a mucky artificial lake I heard was later filled in to make way for a swim club. Very unhappy the day Mom sent me to my room for behavior she found objectionable, I removed the screen from my first floor bedroom window and climbed out. Much to my dismay, this yielded additional home confinement time.

3) The best part of the “beach” at Lake Hiawatha was the refreshment stand. Mom preferred that my older brother and I get ice cream, believing it had some nutritional value. Usually I begged her for a root-beer flavored popsicle. We saved the sticks and tried to build a little house with it.

4) The same summer as my home confinement episode, there was a JonBenét Ramsey style beauty contest for little girls on the “beach.” I felt crushed when I realized my competitors were all wearing frilly party dresses with Mary Jane party shoes, just the type of attire I didn't own -- because Mom considered such stuff frivolous. I was the only one wearing a swimsuit and bare feet, meriting not even a certificate of participation.

5) Hurricanes have a way of disrupting summer vacations. Hurricane Edna struck not long after Labor Day of 1954, causing loss of power and major flooding in Lake Hiawatha. I thought it was cool to see neighbors on inner tubes and inflatable boats floating down the streets, but Mom feared this could be a good way to catch polio. When Hurricane Hazel followed, Grandma and Grandpa decided to sell the “log cabin.”

6) Getting to Broad Channel Day Camp -- where I spent four weeks in the summer of 1960 -- involved a bus ride through the Howard Beach section of Queens. These days I associate Howard Beach with two things: the notorious racial incident in 1986 that made headline news, which itself gave rise to Chris Rock’s hilariously funny routine that has him standing on Howard Beach Boulevard, proposing that it be renamed Tupac Shakur Boulevard.

7) The jigsaw puzzles and paint by numbers sets – house gifts from weekend guests Grandma would invite to the house she and Grandpa later bought at Lake Mahopac, New York – came in boxes that looked really appealing. Rainy day activities by default, they proved exercises in frustration for a kid who struggled to read maps and had less than perfect eye-hand coordination.

8) Stocking up on too much sunscreen may have jinxed that week in August 2004 when Dennis and I spent the bulk of the time on the lawn of a hotel in Olgonquit, Maine looking out over the Marginal Way -- swathed in sweat suits, ever hopeful that the sun would come out but inevitably disappointed. I ate lobster rolls with French fries for lunches and dinners, accompanied by hot fudge brownie sundaes, but did very little swimming or sunbathing.

9) One of my best mini-vacations ever included spending a long, mother-daughter bonding weekend with Daphne at The Sanderling in the Outer Banks. She'd been hesitant about leaving New York to accept a job at The Daily Press in Newport News, and I tried to make it seem more appealing with an offer that when summer came, she and I would meet at The Sanderling. The weather was perfect, as was the beach offering wild surf and water enough for bathing. We capped off each day at the beach with homemade cookies and ice tea.

What are observations about your own summer vacation experiences? I'd love to hear about them -- the "days at the beach" as well as the vacations that proved disappointing.