Category: Elder Folk
Hi All:
Just curious as to what your summers were like when you were growing up?
For me, I went to a residential school for the blind. I'd leave on Sunday nights, and come home Friday afternoons. I did this from first grade till I graduated. In many ways, the school was really where I grew up. As a result, I really got to know my family in a sense during the summers.
We lived in a small town. I can remember riding to the snowball stand, or crossing the railroad tracks and route 40 on foot with my friends to go to the nearest shopping center.
We had a little cabin we'd go to on weekends near a creek. I can remember going to sleep listening to the bullfrogs and crickets and the stream. Closer to our home, I remember going to sleep listening to trucks on Route 40, or trains on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.
Lou
I also went to a residential school for the blind. I attended through the eighth grade before switching to public school. My summers were pretty quiet during the years I attended the blind school because I didn't know neighborhood kids since I didn't go to school with them. But my parents were divorced, and my mom and I lived in Columbus while my dad and two older brothers lived in another part of the state. So I spent two weeks every summer with them, and then my brothers spent a week or two with us. So those weeks with my brothers were always fun. I was quite a tom boy back then.
Hi lou,
well, I went to 2 camps, one for the blind, and the other for all kinds of disabilities. I went to the one for the blind for a week, and the other one was for 2 weeks. They had different activities, arts and crafts, swimming, and something called fine arts, which could be anything from just listening to someone read stories, to painting. they even had one fine arts where we painted with our feet, which was kind of weird, but I just put my feet in the paint and rubbed them over the canvas as best as I could. In the arts and crafts department, I preferred making things you could actually ues instead of things just for the looks of it.
wonderwoman
I never really liked any of that finger painting very much. I seem to remember it having some kind of texture, though. I never did the camp thing in the summers.
I never went to any camps for blind folks as a kid, or just packed away to any kind of camp by myself. We would occasionally go as a family to a ranch that some friends of ours had out in the hills. So I'd get to play in the water, as I didn't really swim, or just hang out in the main campground and listen to the radio or relax in a lawn chair with a cold pop or whatever. Used to love to shoot off fireworks around the Fourth of July time. Spent lots of time just being at home as well playing outside or watching the TV or such. I did goto a summer school-type thing for a couple of years and it was for not just blind kids but kids with any disability I guess, but I forget most of what that was like. Hahahahahaha!
My summers were great!
I grew up on a farm, so there was always something to do. I worked in the garden a lot, the only thing that I hated was picking green beans. Those rows never seemed to end.
We had lots of fun, though, too. I shot a lot of BB gun and rode a lot of bike. We also had a hrse for a couple of years so that was fun, too.
When it was really hot, we used ot swim in the cow tank. Probably wasn't the greatest looking pool, but it did the job, lol.
I don't remember too much about the summers, but I remember that we (the students at the school for the blind I went to) went to Fresh Air camp one weekend each year. It was fun, but cold. It was cold because these trips always took place in the spring and it wasn't warm enough to be up in the mountains. that's where the camp was located. I remember singing and listening to stories around the campfire. That was neat. those are some of my happiest memories.
I played with neighbor kids during the summer and didn't have much contact with my school friends a that time. I was closer to my school friends than the friends in the neighborhood because I was at school during the week and that's where most of my attatchment was.
I also attended a residential school for the blind during the school year and came home for the summers rather like a familiar stranger. I didn't know all the ins and outs of the local goings on among my contemporaries, but, I knew them and they knew me.
Also,, I was thought to be better traveled as I had associated with kids of all different races and upbringings during the school year. In other words, I didn't have all the prejudices of my contemporaries.
My summers were divided into three parts.
The beginning. A time to revel in the freedom of summer with the whole summer ahead of me. I had tv shows to catch up on. I had to sleep late, as that definitely wasn't something enjoyed at the school, and I had books and books and books to read. There were books at school, but there was no time to read them. Plus, I had to read "literary" books and couldn't really read the mysteries and science fiction that I loved.
The middle of the summer came around July fourth. In Texas it gets as hot as hell during July and August, so outside experiences were limited. However, my family always spent a week camping on the beach at Port Aranzis or Corpus Christie. I remember those trips with great fondness. I learned to water ski, do the bop, and kiss my cousin. That was also a time for vacation bible school. I was a pretty mischievious kid, but by the end of a week of learning about the bible, God and his love, I always re-dedicated my life. I couldn't help it. That rededication usually lasted about two weeks.
The end of the summer started around August 1. That was a time to try to do all the things I had planned to do and hadn't done this summer. That's also the time the Lions Club used to start pressuring me to go to the Lions camp for blind and crippled children. It always sounded neat. I always signed up to go. I always planned to go, and I never went. It seemed too much like the blind school to me, and I would face that nine month stint of torture soon enough.
My sister, and my cousins always had a monopoly tournament at the end of the summer. It wasn't something planned, but it happened anyway. It became a conflict with my sister and me on one side and my three cousins on the other side. I remember being saved from ignominious bankrupcy by my sister, and later on in the game wildly spending a fortune to beat my cousin who had forced my sister into bankrupcy.
Finally, I remember the weekend before I returned to school as a time of regret. Regret for the things I hadn't done that I had planned to do, and the regret for the foolish things I had done that summer.
Today I hear talk about "year-round school" and it really bothers me. Summers were made for kids, and schools are not corporations with employees' vacations something that needs to be worked out so the corporation can go year round. I repeat, summers are for kids.
Good topic. Thanks for posting it.
Bob
Thanks for responding. Missed your thoughtful posts over the last few weeks. Welcome back!
Lou
My summers were weird when I was young, though that was the story with my entire childhood. I too went to a school for the blind, in fact I went to four different schools for the blind and three mainstream schools. One of the most exciting things about the summers was seeing my sibs again. I had five brothers and sisters, including an older sister who was only a year and a half older than me. I always loved to hear about her new school, and since I would usually be out earlier than she, I often got to go with her at least once. All the other kids would be so nice to me!
Since my family had usually moved to another place during the school year, it was always exciting to get to know the new place, and to learn what radio stations were around. By the time it was time to go back to the blind school, whichever one I was attending, I was always ready to leave, however, because I would be tired of dealing with my stepfather. Now I hardly notice summers at all, just the heat because otherwise there isn't much difference from the rest of the year.