Summer Vacation is just around the corner. Both my kids and Christin’s are in the home stretch. Five days and counting! A shift is taking place. Late nights and lazy mornings will be here before you know it. Trips to the beach, the zoo, and for the one week in Summer when we hit 90 degrees, this is when we hit the mall basking in the glory of air condition. Breakfast at 10:00 am over coffee, juice, and bacon. Late night dinners because no one has to be up early. Each kid hoping that THIS will be a summer to remember. As Christin and I think back to our own Summers, some, not that long ago, we decided what better way to welcome Summer than with our very own playlist. The only rule, there is none. Over the course of the next ten days, we will each share a song with you that envokes a special summer memory. A song that when Christin and I hear it in the middle of October, we start counting down the days to Summer, remembering days long gone. We hope you enjoy this series as much as we enjoyed writing about it.

Christin

Sofia was in the third grade. I was an active parent volunteer at her school. It was the last day of school. While the students were in their respective classrooms, doing final clean up touches on empty desks and bare walls, you could hear their excitement. Summer vacation was finally here.

Some fellow parent volunteers and I were in the school workroom cleaning it up, making sure everything was in place for when we all returned in September. Cookie ovens unplugged, a clean bulletin board waiting to see what next year’s theme will be, a coffee pot along with stale creamer packed up for the summer.

One of the parent volunteers had some “music” playing on her phone. I use the word “music” very loosely. It was not music. It was fingernails on a chalkboard kind of music, and she was singing along to every cringe-worthy lyric.

I opened the back door to the workroom to get some fresh air in there. There was a burst of cool breeze that kinda pushed the door out further than I had originally intended. A storm was coming. The sky was turning a deep shade of blue, you could hear thunder in the distance, and smell the rain that would probably be here at any moment. It was a nice change. Not your typical “Welcome to Summer vacation” weather, but my kind of weather.

As the three of us we standing there, chilly from the quick change of a mild muggy heat to a chilly fall breeze, the song changed on her phone. As soon as I heard the very first line, the other’s made their way to the phone to switch it.

“Don’t you dare change it, this is a classic!”

Here comes the jesters, one, two three
It’s all part of my fantasy
I love the music and I love to see the crowd
Dancin’ In the aisles and singin’ out loud

Both of them looked at me, then at each other. “What song is this? I don’t think I know it?”

I was dumbfounded.

Ignoring them, I walked outside, just as it was starting to sprinkle. I could still hear the music playing.

 

I opened up my arms, welcoming the rain. Standing there, on the playground of a school that has at least five hundred students and staff,  I had not a care in the world. This was the last day of school. With open arms, I welcomed the rain. This was a perfect start to my summer.

Only when the song finished, did I make my way back inside. Hair damp with the first rain of the season, makeup borderline smudged, clothes, slightly wet. Perhaps I did not think this out fully. There was still the end of the year assembly to attend, and I looked like a wet skunk, but I will tell you, standing on the empty playground, taking in the rain as a sign from up above “You’re going to have a hot summer, but I will give you this.” it just set the mood. “Let’s go summer, show me whatcha got!”

And to this day, every time I hear Bad Company’s “Rock N Roll Fantasy” it takes me back to that day in the rain. And no matter where I am, I will be..

Dancin’ In the aisles and singin’ out loud