Let the games begin

I guess it's officially summer now, though I have to say it doesn't feel that way just yet. Must be officially summer because I went to the Binghamton Mets game last night with Jim and I only do that in the summer....

Ryan has been looking around for a summer job that pays with an actual check and doesn't involve a court, field or ball. He works on the weekends at a farm and that keeps him in gas money but he'd like to try something different.

So I got to thinking about summer jobs, which of course doesn't just mean "summer" jobs, but those jobs we had before we became all that we are today. I don't have a real good recollection of what you-all were doing in your spare time to earn money but I think the wide variety of jobs that I had really helped develop adult skills.

Babysitting, naturally, is one of those top teenage jobs. This is Kathy and I on Buffalo Street with two of our charges. I have Molly Homokay who lived int hat house you see in the background. Kathy has Scotty and I think he lived right next door. I had lots of babysitting experiences including watching kids at the track while parents did motocross racing. I remember once calling Mom to ask how to open a can of tuna fish with a hand held opener. I only knew how to operate an electric opener. I think that was the same motocross family and they lived right across the street from the elementary school.

I also babysat for the social studies teacher Mr. Hotelling. I liked going to their house but I can't remember the kids too well. They started an event in Silver Creek to honor their daughter Laurel who was born with Down Syndrome. It's one of those connections to my childhood that I will carry with me always, even though I can't say I specifically remember Laurel. I do remember the family.

I worked for Burt in his office briefly once, answering phones. I picked grapes, strawberries and tomatoes. I was a clerk at Brooks for a long time. I scooped ice cream in a convenience store (probably my least favorite). I worked two summers in Dallas: one summer at a dry cleaners run by Iranians during the hostage crisis. Very interesting.

One summer at the "Union Standard Insurance Company" (I still remember answering the phone) putting together household policies for Arkansas, Texas and Oklahoma. You didn't know that, did you? That summer, I had just gotten contacts and one of them went down the sink in the ladies room. One of the suit guys came in to the ladies room and tried to retrieve it from the sink pipes--and he did! In my mind's eye, I can still see him bent over under that sink in his good pants and shirt.

It probably didn't help Kathy and Peter's relationship for me to be there so much so early in their marriage. You don't think of those things at that age. I drove myself to Dallas and back and I can imagine what Mom was thinking all that time. I was the age Amy is now and we can barely reconcile ourselves to allow her to drive to Wallops Island by herself (as she naturally prefers).

So, for you guys--I think I remember Kathy and Paula both working at the pool? Chris at the grocery store. I'm sure you have lots of interesting stories about those summer jobs. Share! As you think about those days, enjoy the official start of summer.

As I look at this picture again, how about those shorts? I made that top too. Ahh...the good ole days.