Summer Vacation

A Writing Prompt

Please scroll all the way to the bottom of this page. Why? Read this:

This was written in response to J.S. Phillips and her prompt that was a “chaser” to the High School Days prompt. You can see the original questions along with her answers here:

So, here are my answers about my Summer Vacations:

1. Did you stay home or spend summers somewhere else? I stayed home. Our family didn’t travel much.
2. If the answer to the previous was home, did you take a vacation usually at least once during summer? We did not take annual vacations, but occasionally we would take a trip to Branson, Missouri, and visit Silver Dollar City. Branson has been called the “Vegas of the Midwest.” It has tons of music shows, featuring mostly country artists. I saw Marie Osmond there once and got a picture with her.
3. Summer camp? Never went to summer camp.
4. Did you usually sleep in every day or get up early like during the school year? Definitely slept in as late as possible. Mom didn’t like it and thought it was laziness.
5. Did you spend more time indoors or outdoors during summer, or was it a pretty even split? I would say it was pretty evenly split. We lived in the country so there was a lot to do outside, but I was rather a homebody too.
6. Was tanning a thing? I didn’t start tanning until I was a senior, maybe.
7. Was the beach a thing? Lake, ocean, creek, river? Living in Missouri, the only beaches were at a few certain lakes, but we never went there. I did go on a few float trips with our youth group when I was in high school. Those were always fun.
8. What’s your favorite summer memory of your entire childhood? I just remember the relief of being out of school. There was a sort of treehouse that my brother and I made. That was fun.
9. Swimming pool? Yours, a friend’s, local public pool. We had an above-ground pool, only about four feet deep.
10. Were sports part of your summer? As a player? Spectator? I never played sports but my siblings did, so I would watch some of their games.
11. Did you ever get hooked on a soap opera during summer vacation? Yes, actually my grandma always watched The Young and the Restless, so I kept up with that one. Sometimes my sister and I would mute the volume and talk as if we were the characters.
12. What was your favorite quick cool-down drink or method? Iced tea was a constant in our house, but Kool-Aid was as well. I do not like Kool-Aid now.
13. Was there usually a visit to an amusement park? I went to Worlds of Fun in Kansas City a couple of times, but I was not fond of roller coasters when I was young. I didn’t like heights and I was not adventurous. I like them now though.
14. Describe some annual local event that happened in summer that you were fond of. We had an “Ice Cream Social” every summer at the end of baseball season. Many of the local parents would bring their ice cream makers and we would have all kinds of different flavors of homemade ice cream and the proceeds went to support the ballpark.
15. Did you suffer summer boredom or did you basically just love it all the time? I was pretty bored, but anything was better than school.
16. Were there fireworks? We usually had some fireworks on the Fourth of July but I’ve never been a big fan.

Copyright © 2023 Brandon Ellrich

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