Greg Awtry

As summer winds down I can’t help but think back over a half-century ago. (I can’t believe I just wrote “a half-century ago”, which must be a mistake because I don’t need self-imposed reminders of how old I am getting.) But as I said, as summer winds down and I see my grandchildren getting ready to start another school year, I recall memories of not wanting summer to end. Now don’t get me wrong. I liked school, but given the choice of summer vacation or school, what would you have chosen?

I grew up on a lake. My parents owned a small lakeside resort. We had a small restaurant, about 10 small fishing cabins, boat gas and bait. Yes, I was the boat gas and bait boy. At least I was when I wasn’t swimming or fishing. To say it was a perfect place to grow up would be an understatement.

But time is an impossible thing to slow down, summers do end, schools do restart, and people do get older and memories get a bit harder to recall.

You know summer is nearing the end because it is county fair time for most places in America. I still can smell the county fairs of my youth. The livestock odors of course, but also the cotton candy, the grape snow cones, and those dang-good fried elephant ears. And who didn’t like the rides on the midway and the carnival games. The shooting gallery was always my favorite.

In the fifties and sixties, life seemed so much simpler. We weren’t burdened with 24-7 news, cell phones, emails, smart cars, smart watches, and the whole crazy world of social media. We were outside more than inside. We spoke to people instead of texting. We called older people Mr. and Mrs. We said please and thank you, and we had to be home by 6:00 for dinner!

Do I long for the “good old days”? Yes, I liked the freedom of youth. I liked 25-cent gasoline, which is how much the boat gas sold for back then. I liked nickel candy bars and 15-cent Saturday matinee movies. I liked not wearing shoes for weeks on end. And yes, I did like the smells of county fairs!

I think, although we can’t stop time, it was slower back then. We didn’t seem to be rushed all the time. There wasn’t even an Interstate Highway, often times finding ourselves behind a truckload of hay, cattle or hogs. No problem, just slow down, wait until they turned off the road. My dad would always stop at the gas station on the way home from church to buy a Sunday paper, and spend 20 minutes inside just talking to local friends. He would wander back to the car, and then toss the comic section into the back seat for my sister and me. Times were slow then. Today I get upset if I am the third car at a stoplight!

Then we grow up, work most of our lives, hurrying everywhere. That is until you retire which is the place I find myself today. In many ways it mirrors my youth. We have the time to reminisce as I am doing right now. We have the time to think of the good old days, which I am sure weren’t as good as I remember, but the innocence of youth and summertime tends to smother out the pain of a broken arm or blistering sunburns.

I missed going to the fair this year, but my grandchildren didn’t. They visited the livestock barns, watched the domestic duck judging, and I am sure they enjoyed the tastes and smells that have lingered in the summer breeze for all these years. In the next few weeks their swimming and tubing in Hubbard Lake will be replaced with hustling and bustling schedules of swimming and football practices, classes and homework.

And so it goes, from generation to generation, so different now and yet so similar. Maybe it is true what they say. The more things change the more they stay the same, implying that despite new developments and technology, certain patterns, behaviors and tendencies persist over time.

As the famous Ella Fitzgerald once sang, “Summertime, and the livin’ is easy.”

Thanks for letting me ramble. What are your best childhood summer memories? Let me know at gregawtry@awtry.com.

Greg Awtry is the former publisher of the Scottsbluff (Neb.) Star-Herald and Nebraska’s York News-Times. He is now retired and living in Hubbard Lake. Greg can be contacted at gregawtry@awtry.com.