Writer Wednesday – How I Spent Summer Vacations as a Kid

I’m back for the third installment of Writer Wednesday. Here is this month’s prompt:

-BlogCarnJune10-01

 

When I was a kid, summer vacations were usually spent camping or visiting family in Ohio or Texas. Texas was fun, because we stayed with my aunt at a resort, where there was tons of stuff to do, and Ohio was fun, because I had literally dozens of cousins to play with.

When I hit 13, I started taking vacations with my best friend Donna and her family. We traveled to several states in her parents’ motorhome and did lots of camping, but they also had a cabin in Ocala National Forest where we would often stay. Donna would bring her mini-bike (larger than a moped, but smaller than a motorcycle), and we would ride all over the dirt roads in the area. Wherever we went, we were usually on the lookout for cute guys to hang out with. In fact, how many cute guys we found determined the success or failure of a vacation.

On one of those trips, we were out on the bike and ran out of gas, and a guy named Eddie stopped to help us. He was really nice, but he didn’t count as one of our “cute guys,” because he was OLD. (He was 25.)  We ended up seeing him several more times, and when we were ready to head home, he wanted to stay in touch, so we gave him Donna’s address.

The next weekend, I was staying at her house, and an envelope from Eddie arrived. Inside were two pieces of paper folded in thirds. On one he had written, “For Donna’s eyes only,” and on the other, “For Carol’s eyes only.” I unfolded mine and read it. He had filled the page confessing his undying love for me in rather flowery prose. He ended with, “Please don’t let Donna read this. I don’t want her to know how I feel about you.” We both finished reading, looked at each other, and did what any other 15-year-old best friends would do–we traded letters. Of course, hers said exactly the same thing as mine, with the same caution at the end. Eddie may have been OLD, but if he really thought we would keep our letters secret, he didn’t know diddly squat about teenage girls!

What fun stuff did you do during summer vacation? To check out what some of my friends posted, click the following links. (For future Writer Wednesday topics, see the calendar below.)

Kay Hudson – Jamie Wesley – KD Fleming – Kat Cantrell – Kathleen Bittner Roth – Kristen Ethridge –

Natalie Meg Evans – Priscilla Kissinger – Sharon Wray – Wendy LaCapra

BlogCarnivallist-01-jpeg