You make me feel something like summertime
Top down ain't nothing but time
Radio's on and you're by my side
Feels something like summertime
Like a first slow dance and a first long kiss
There ain't nothing baby better then this
It's like a beach blanket and a bottle of wine
It feels something like summertime
Sum-summer-summertime
I’m one of the few kids who didn’t have a summer job growing up. Actually, I wasn’t allowed to work—I played competitive sports for a living. Softball was my career of choice at the time. I didn’t get paid to play, but it sure was fun.
Sometimes I wonder if I missed out on anything by not having a job—even just one day a week. But our softball schedule was so busy I never knew when I would need time off. We traveled every week for tournaments and we had practice on the nights we weren’t on the road. I’m not kidding when I say softball was my job from April through August.
What I loved about not working, was the freedom I had during the day. I would spend most of the time at the swimming pool (except on game days, of course) and we’d always get at least a week’s vacation and go camping.
When I graduated high school, my softball career ended. And I was ready to give it up, honestly. It had been fun, but very demanding, and I was ready to feel grown up and get a job.
Boy, I wish I would’ve waited just one summer longer. I’ve been working ever since!
Here are some things I fondly recall about my jobless summers:
- Hanging out for 8 hours at the swimming pool, looking at all the hot guys but being too shy to do anything more than look. (FYI, one of those hot guys is now my kids’ pediatrician…)
- Hanging out at the baseball fields watching all the hot guys in between my games.
- Going to the lake. Skiing and showing off for all the hot guys.
- Hot guys.
- My first kiss was on the lake…with a hot guy of course.
Hm. I think summer for me was all about the hot guys—funny how things really haven’t changed all that much. Maybe it’s a good thing I didn’t have a job. I probably would’ve gotten fired for staring at all the hot guys and not doing my job.
Do you work after school or in the summer? Do you think it enhances or hinders your summer vacay?
No matter what you do during the summer, please remember to make the most out of it...preferably by drooling over a hot guy or two. (or girl. we don't discriminate here at Fictionistas!)
ROFL--great post! Glad to hear you had so much fun... :D
ReplyDeleteheh. well, that's what summer is about...right?
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Mel!
ReplyDeleteSummer jobs once I hit 14. Actually, I worked part time all through High school, so summer was no different.
ReplyDeleteI worked at a Salt water taffy stand at the State Fair, then a CD store (full of Hot hot hot guys. motherload of hot guys) then when I really needed money, I waitressed. that sucked.
Summers meant babysitting because I had to buy all my own school clothes.
ReplyDeleteAnd then my Senior year, I actually supported myself while going to school.
But I still managed to have a lot of fun.
Summer? What's that? Shoot, I had a full-time job (okay, it was only 25-30 hours) at 14.
ReplyDeleteIs summer the time when you're outside..and swim...and you know, have one of those 'life things' I've heard so much about? Ah, the fictional things you read of.
Nice dream, err, post, Mel!
Summer jobs didn't start until Senior year of high school for me, so I spent all the summers before that swimming, camping, riding bikes, reading, riding the strip, etc. What i wouldn't give for a summer off now!
ReplyDeleteMy part-time job as a teen (full-time in the summers) was in a public library, which was awesome. It helped feed my reading habit, which, in turn, unconsciously fed my not-yet-awakened writing habit.
ReplyDeleteDecember, I always loved waiting tables. The $ was great and the life after work was unbelievable. But I was in college. High school probably would've been a different story.
ReplyDeleteGwen, I babysat a lot. It was the best 'job' ever at the time because if I was busy, I could say no. The money was top notch, too.
Lanie, I was lucky. I know it. Of course, I'm sure at the time I had no idea how lucky I really was. What I wouldn't give to go back to the days that all I had to worry about was the next softball game.
Susan, my first job was the summer I graduated. I worked in a daycare for a creepy guy who looked at me funny. I left after 1 month and took a job delivering pizzas...which I kept for 4 years. Best job ever.
Mark--library would've been great. I've encouraged my kids to go that route, too.
My first job was the summer after I graduated high school, before I left for college. I took up residence in one of the bedrooms of my grandma's beach house in Hilton Head and found a job at a pizza parlor. I was technically a waitress, but because all the other waitresses were older than me and had more experience, I spent most of my time prepping salads in the back and answering the phone and taking the phone orders. But we pooled all the tips, so it didn't really matter anyway.
ReplyDeleteAbout halfway through the summer they let me wait on my first table. Thus began my several summer stint as a waitress (first at the pizza place, then at an Irish pub a couple of years later). I have a lot of respect for servers and always tip well.
Amanda, that sounds a little bit like Mystic Pizza...
ReplyDeleteThat is what I was thinking, Mel. Totally Mystic Pizza.
ReplyDeleteHuh, hadn't even thought of that.
ReplyDeleteWhen I think back to that summer, the soundtrack in my mind ('cuz there's always a soundtrack, isn't there?) is John Cougar Mellencamp's "Wild Nights" because that song was popular that summer and also because my cousin was dating Mellencamp's nanny (she basically just housesat at his beach house because neither he nor his kids were there practically the entire summer) so we had a couple of parties there.
Also the song "Hey Jealousy."
Oh, the pizza plce I worked at was called Giuseppe's. I still like going there for pizza whenever I'm in HH,
ReplyDelete"Beach rats." That's what they called us, and every summer everyone -- I MEAN EVERYONE-- broke up with their gf or bf until fall so they could date summer hotties staying in the beach-houses.
ReplyDeleteIf you were smart you got a job working the parking lot, as a lifegaurd, or like me-- reading cards down by the beach!
The guys even used to change their names for the summmer. I think my brother tried to be Thor one year but everyone kept forgetting.
I was lame... I kept the same bf. *Sigh.* Oh, the opportunities missed!
uh, their is a lovely black woman... do you know something i don't?
ReplyDelete