The Screen Door Slams

The List: What we loved and didn’t love so much… about Summer.

Add your own, please…there’s a tiny bit of it left. Fall begins September 23.

 

 

 

 

 

 

    (reprised from last year by no one’s popular demand)

 summer delights

  • -temporary suspension of ambition
  • -light past bedtime
  • -outdoor showers
  • -a very, very cold sancerre or new zealand sauvingnon blanc
  • -girl twin learning to swim without death grip around my neck (possibly rendering immediately above unnecessary) and boy twin stops torturing her about it
  • -tomatoes, lobster, watermelon
  • -running every day without my lungs needing antifreeze
  • -yard sales
  • -my neighbor vrooming his motorcycle around the block at midnight making us all feel about 19
  •  skinny dipping
  • -lanyards

 

 

 

__

 

 

__

 

 

 

 

 summer annoyances  

  • -jellyfish stings (add mosquito, bee, etc.)
  • -outdoor glare on the laptop screen
  • -plastic adirondack chairs
  • -people trying to have1950’s june cleaver vacations in a mercedes minivan
  • -lanyards
  • -you discover they really did pave paradise and put up a parking lot

19 Comments

  1. Mary’s dress waves, like a vision she dances across the porch as the radio plays, roy orbison singing for the lonely…………

    editrix
    hey that’s me and i want you only…

  2. i loved this. brought back a lot of memories. i remember my dad teaching me how to dive and how excited i was to finally be able to do a real dive. ice cream cones,corn on the cob (i set the record for how many one could eat) catching fireflys, being able to stay up late, a visit from Nani

    sunburns (ouch)
    misquito bites
    summer reading

    keep up the great work you do.

  3. Baseball
    no socks
    Jones beach
    iced tea
    thunderstorms

  4. don’t turn me home again I just can’t face myself alone again
    Don’t run back inside darling you know just what I’m here for

  5. Cause you’re scared and you’re thinkin’ that maybe we ain’t that young anymore…

  6. So you’re scared and you’re thinkin that maybe we ain’t that young anymore
    Show a little faith there’s magic in the night, you ain’t a beauty but yea you’re alright
    And that’s alright with me!

  7. So you’re scared and thinking we aint that young anymore…
    Show a little faith there’s magic in the night

  8. all the redemption I can off is beneath this dirty hood.

  9. + Dawn Patrol surfing safaris making it back by 9:30 to take the kids to the pool
    Flip Flops and ice cold beers
    Fire flies
    Outdoor Concerts

    – Humidity

  10. No one personifies summer like Bruce. Thank you for bringing him front and center, just where he deserves to be. Can’t you just hear that screen door?

  11. Screen porch and beach reading, 4th of July fireworks, corn on the cob, flip flops, popsicles, shopping for new school clothes seeing your friends again after vacation

  12. “We do, doodley do, doodley do, doodley do,
    What we must, muddily must, muddily must, muddily must;
    Muddily do, muddily do, muddily do, muddily do,
    Until we bust, bodily bust, bodily bust, bodily bust.”
    –Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

  13. The languorous, eternal, magical air that Summer brings to the back yard.
    The stunning end of the day on the Atlantic Shore…
    The gritty, sweaty, yet laid-back air that comes walking down the street in Manhattan.
    The sweetness, and freshness, of our daily bread.

  14. show a little faith
    there’s magic in the night
    you ain’t a beauty, but hey
    you’re all ri-ight
    oh and that’s alright
    with me

  15. It’s a town full of losers and I’m pulling out of here to win

  16. What else can we do now? Except roll down the windows and let the wind blow back your hair. Well the nights bustin’ open these two lanes will take us anywhere.

  17. The scent of suntan lotion wafting through the air (preferably Hawaiian Tropic-you know the one, with like a negative SPF)……

  18. My most favorite sound in the world is the sound of a screen door slamming. This sound never fails to transport me to the magical carefree world of long summer days at the beach with a loving, loud, sometimes crazy family.

  19. Oh, for God sakes…here’s the whole thing!!

    The screen door slams, Mary’s dress waves
    Like a vision she dances across the porch as the radio plays
    Roy Orbison singing for the lonely
    Hey that’s me and I want you only
    Don’t turn me home again
    I just can’t face myself alone again
    Don’t run back inside, darling you know just what I’m here for
    So you’re scared and you’re thinking that maybe we ain’t that young anymore
    Show a little faith, there’s magic in the night
    You ain’t a beauty, but hey you’re alright
    Oh and that’s alright with me

    You can hide ‘neath your covers and study your pain
    Make crosses from your lovers, throw roses in the rain
    Waste your summer praying in vain for a saviour to rise from these streets
    Well now I’m no hero, that’s understood
    All the redemption I can offer, girl, is beneath this dirty hood
    With a chance to make it good somehow
    Hey what else can we do now
    Except roll down the window and let the wind blow back your hair
    Well the night’s bustin’ open, these two lanes will take us anywhere
    We got one last chance to make it real
    To trade in these wings on some wheels
    Climb in back, heaven’s waiting down on the tracks

    Oh oh come take my hand
    Riding out tonight to case the promised land
    Oh oh oh oh Thunder Road, oh Thunder Road, oh Thunder Road
    Lying out there like a killer in the sun
    Hey I know it’s late, we can make it if we run
    Oh oh oh oh Thunder Road, sit tight, take hold, Thunder Road

    Well I got this guitar and I learned how to make it talk
    And my car’s out back if you’re ready to take that long walk
    From your front porch to my front seat
    The door’s open but the ride it ain’t free
    And I know you’re lonely for words that I ain’t spoken
    Tonight we’ll be free, all the promises will be broken
    There were ghosts in the eyes of all the boys you sent away
    They haunt this dusty beach road in the skeleton frames of burned-out Chevrolets
    They scream your name at night in the street
    Your graduation gown lies in rags at their feet
    And in the lonely cool before dawn
    You hear their engines roaring on
    But when you get to the porch they’re gone on the wind, so Mary climb in
    It’s a town full of losers, I’m pulling out of here to win

    editrix ted, whoever you are, you’re my hero

Leave a comment