Summertime Tidbits #2

by Chris McGinty of AccordingToWhim.com

My memories are scattered in some places. I think of a number of childhood memories and then wonder if it happened in the summer or some other time. Like that time that my dad and I went to Wet ‘n’ Wild. Was that during the summer or at Christmastime? Ok, living in Texas, that may not be as funny as living somewhere where it actually snows.

Another example of this is that I caught a fish once. I’m reasonably sure it was during the summer, but I really don’t know for sure. I’d been fishing a few times in my life up until that day, but I never caught anything. The brain is interesting in the regard that it will convince you of things that aren’t necessarily reasonable. I was sure that I would never catch a fish, because of the first few fishing trips.

As I learned later, you could flip a coin from this moment until the end of eternity, and it’s possible (though very unlikely) that it might never come up tails. Any given flip has nothing to do with the previous flips or future flips. It was possible I might never catch a fish.

Nathan and Chris like to test the gambler's fallacy with trips to WinStar, no matter what season it is.

I don’t even remember who the guy was, but he was someone my dad knew. He had a pond that was stocked with fish for the purpose of catch and release fishing on his property. When adults are visiting, it’s often a good thing to find something for the kids to do. This thing was standing by the stock pond with a fishing line with my brain convincing me that it was a waste of time. Then I felt a tug at the pole. I panicked. I pulled the line as hard as I could. The fish ended up hanging from the tree behind me. We did manage to get it down and back in the pond before it died. I’ve never fished again.

I promised some more music, and what would a summertime theme be without one of the earliest modern summer songs?

The Jamies – Summertime, Summertime

This song is possibly the predecessor of “School’s Out,” except with maybe even more shocking lines like, “Sorry teacher, but zip your lip,” and “If your folks complain just say, ‘It’s summertime.” I’m imagining pompadours and switchblades on these ruffians.

Speaking of open rebellion, Nathan talked about suicide drinks in his first official installment of the Summertime Funtime theme. I don’t really have much to add to his thoughts, except to say that I first heard about these wondrous concoctions from a kid on one of my little league teams. My mom had agreed to take him home, so that his mom could run errands while we practiced. We stopped at a 7-Eleven, or similar store, and the kid said he was going to make a suicide. I asked for clarification, and he explained that you just mix all the drinks together. I didn’t need to be told twice.

To her credit, my mom didn’t object. Then again, this is a woman who used to buy candy cigarettes for my brother and me while nursing a two pack a day habit with the real things. She just has a different idea of a suicide, I guess. Why am I harshing on cigarettes so bad? I might just be trying to make the part of Nathan that is a conservative idealist cringe with my liberal rhetoric. Nathan’s not really a conservative idealist, but he plays one on the internet.

I’ll finish this off with another great summer song.

 

Seals and Croft – Summer Breeze

Chris McGinty is a blogger who once expressed the theory that a song was great when it referenced suicide at least twice in the lyrics. This may be a controversial idea with these snowflake kids and their soft social media values… wait, maybe Chris is the conservative idealist after all.