It’s that time of year again when we must batten down the hatches and prepare for summer and the onslaught of free time and how to fill it. Not for me of course but for the young’uns. And seriously, who am I kidding, they are perfectly willing to sleep til noon, roll out of bed onto the couch and remain clicking through endless memes and Youtube videos for the better part of an afternoon. Ah the blissful days of youth.
I too have many great memories of summer days spent roaming through the neighbourhoods with a back pack full of snacks and no plans. Calling in at a friend’s house and checking their fridge for better snacks and loitering around the houses with backyard pools. It’s kind of amazing how kids, if left to their own devices, can manage all sorts of fun. Even walking to the corner store could take all day if you followed the creek bed looking for empties to cash in for potato chips and bazookas.
One summer when my friends and I were OBSESSED with Abba, we spent every afternoon for a week creating a script, sets and dance routines to go with our lip-synced versions of the ENTIRE Arrival album. We eventually decided on a – wild west/bank robber – story around the songs which gave the term ‘concept album’ a whole new meaning. Truthfully, I think the story-line was born because one of the girls had brought two vintage Western-style dresses to rehearsal and so, of course, we HAD to find a way for those costumes to make sense in our show (and what better way to come up with an idea?) We had props and special effects and a ‘sound engineer’ starting the record player at the appropriate moments during the performance. The fact that we mobilised an entire cast of kids to participate in this little play was not particularly forward thinking because there wasn’t anyone left to watch. We ended up resurrecting the play once we got back to school in the Fall so we could perform for the primary and kindergarten kids. Luckily we didn’t take ourselves too seriously. I cannot remember another time in my life when I was so happily un-self-conscious. We all were and we would do anything for a laugh. It was all simply for the fun of it.
That sort of caper nowadays will get you your own YouTube channel and, in recounting the gory details to you here, I kind of understand the allure of web immortality. As a kid, we just thought it was hilarious good times and I guess if we could have, we would have shared all that hard work with a whole other audience. The whole production seems far more charming now that it’s on paper. It might be fun to watch it again now from a grown up perspective. Isn’t it weird what you remember from your past? This hadn’t crossed my mind in decades until I had to think what I used to do to pass the summer months…
Hey everybody, have a super summer…and cheers to your past and future groovy memories.