Not sure why I care so much, I’m not even an outdoorsy type.
It’s not like I just can’t wait to head out to the lake with a six-pack to
catch some rays or anything. I’m just about the palest person I know.
But dammit, I think seasons should live up to expectations. Stick to the familiar pattern. And
this summer has let me down.
Maybe it’s one of those weird emotional holdovers from
childhood. When you’re a kid you want it to be sunny so you can go out and….do
whatever it is that kids do. I don’t really remember. Come to think of it, I
guess I spent most of my time inside reading comic books and watching reruns on
television. So there you go.
Still, summer means sun, leisure, late nights, no school.
Ah, no school. It’s weird how that feeling of not having to go to school does a
number on the psyche. I haven’t gone to school in more than twenty years, but
somehow I still look forward to summer with the same kind of anticipation.
That’s why it should be sunny. Because I want to fully enjoy
not having to go to school again. So I can
hang out and play video games. So I can crank up Zeppelin or The Who. So I can
stay up and watch Letterman. So I can head to the movies or the baseball game.
And at the baseball game I’ll turn to my companion and utilize the old Ferris
Bueller quote, as my friends and I so often did, regardless of whether it was
even appropriate, which means we’d use it even during summer vacation: “Do you
realize, if we’d played by the rules right now we’d be in gym?”
Once, in my junior year, on a rainy day towards the end of
the school year, my friends and I nearly skipped school. Yeah, that’s the kind
of rebellious thugs we were – we NEARLY skipped school. As we milled about
before the first bell debating whether or not to leave, I tried to pump myself
up for the possible truancy by imagining all the fun we might have. Since it
was raining we’d have to stay indoors. Which means we’d end up at the mall, or
Burger King. Doesn’t sound like much, but hey, when you’re seventeen and among
friends, throwing around wisecracks and lewd jokes and generally acting
obnoxious, going to those quaint places and just hanging around can be a
helluva lot of fun. It was a simpler time, then. Maybe. Probably not.
The thing I really wanted to do was go back to my house and
listen to records. The album I remember specifically wanting to listen to was Electric
Ladyland. With the rain and all, it seemed
appropriate. Side 3 – “Rainy Day, Dream Away” into “1983” into “Moon Turn The
Tides…Gently Gently Away”. I imagined all of us sitting around, watching the rain
through the window, floating away on that weird aquatic/astral soundscape while
Jimi sings about starfish and mermen. Escaping into some kind of elsewhere. And
without drugs even. I mean, none of us even smoked pot. Though I suspect that
was due more to lack of ingenuity than anything else.
The point is that feeling of escape. Tripping out on eerie
underwater music when we oughtta be in gym. That feeling of escape was so intoxicating back then. I’ve
tried so hard so often to replicate it in the years since, and usually failed.
Maybe I don’t have anything that I feel the need to escape
from anymore.
Maybe I didn’t then. We didn’t actually skip school that
day. Hell, the horrible truth is I kind of liked school.
And I generally like the things I do now. Still, I have this
nagging urge to leave. Find something, somewhere else, where something
beautiful and weird might be happening.
Maybe I’ll throw on Electric Ladyland. It might be the only escape.
