Subscribe to one of Suzanne's online bookclubs and receive her daily column at: DearReader.com
AUTHORBUZZ: Discover new books, "meet" the authors and enter to win: Goto: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader
Dear Reader,
Seth has been counting down the days until he gets to visit his grandparents. My husband and I are the grandparents, and Seth is our 17-year-old soon to be senior in high school grandchild, who is flying into Sarasota today for a nine-day visit. I'm feeling kind of special that a teenager still feels visiting his grandparents is cool, and that he says it's going to be the highlight of his summer. My husband has a small sailboat and he's planning on teaching Seth how to sail and I'll be cooking and shopping with Seth--carrying on the tradition of sending him home with two new pair of tennis shoes.
Seth loves to fish and so do James and Paul, our other two much younger grandsons, who live here in Sarasota. So I'm sure we'll be doing a lot of catch-and-release from the seawall at the end of our block.
When I was a kid the first thing I'd do after school got out for summer vacation was head to the store for some new summer clothes, and pajamas were at the top of the list--at least three pair. Frequently the neighborhood kids (the girls anyway) would have an outdoor pajama party. It wasn't planned, but when the sun started to go down, we just seemed to end up on the front stoop of one of our houses, all decked out in our new pj's.
The conversation usually included a stimulating kid debate of the Catholic religion verses the Protestant (we'd repeat things that we heard our parents saying). We were passionate about our (parents') views, and strong debaters, but I don't remember anyone ever converting. Then we'd move on to formulating Friday night plans, checking to see if our Catholic friends would be allowed to go to the movies. Every week the priest would give the local theater owner a note--thumbs up or down--on whether his flock could see the movie that week, and the note was always posted on the front of the ticket window. After our weekend plans were confirmed, we'd move on to a game of hide n' seek.
I always had a Monday through Friday baby-sitting job during the summer (had to raise money for fall school clothes), and when the kids were down for naps, I'd sit out in the sun drinking Diet-Rite Cola and squeezing the juice from a fresh lemon over my hair, about every 15 minutes. It was supposed to lighten my dark brown hair. (Obviously it worked, today I'm a blonde!)
Two weeks of the summer I spent at Girl Scout Camp...you know I'm getting a little wordy today. I think I better continue my walk down memory lane tomorrow....talk to you then...
If you haven't entered this year's Write a Dear Reader Contest, you have 12 days left to enter. It's a writing-for-fun contest, so you can't go wrong. No experience necessary. You'll find all the info, including the cash prize amounts (cash for summer clothes shopping) go to: http://www.dearreader.com/contest2014/index.html
Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.
Suzanne Beecher
[email protected]
AUTHORBUZZ: With so many new books out every week, we promise these titles deserve your attention:
(Fantasy)
POISON PROMISE by Jennifer Estep
(Fantasy)
THE SHADOW PRINCE by Stacey O'Neale
(Fiction)
AZAGOTH by Larissa Ione
Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader
* This month's Penguin Classics book THE BIRD'S NEST by Shirley Jackson. Start reading now and don't forget to enter the drawing for your chance to win a Penguin Totebag: http://www.supportlibrary.com/bc/v.cfm?L=drclassqqxqB1AFE3FA7A33&c=CLASSICS
Comments