Summer... Then & Now

I love summer. The only thing is, summer vacations are so short now. Wasn't summer break longer when we were kids? Was it really? I don't know for sure but summer seemed a lot longer when I was growing up. Of course we didn't have all of the many sources of "entertainment" that our kids have now. I grew up with two sisters and we lived in the country. We spent our days riding our bikes, playing with the water hose, "swimming" in a little plastic pool in the backyard, playing with our barbie dolls on the front porch, playing on a swing-set in the backyard, helping mom and dad in the vegetable garden, going to Vacation Bible School or a Gospel Meeting SOMEWHERE just about every night, chasing fireflys (lightning bugs) around at night, shelling peas, lying in the cool grass under a shade tree reading a book, playing with the neighbor kids, playing red-rover and rock-school for no reason other than to pass the time, and dreaming about our upcoming one & only annual vacation to the beach. How different is that from how our kids spend their summer days now? We stay so busy that it seems August rolls around before we blink an eye. Is it better this way or was it better the way I grew up? I don't know, just something to ponder. As I was sitting at yet another baseball practice over the weekend I was looking at our calendar for the remainder of the summer break. We have only two free weekends before going back to school and one of those weekends we hope to go to the beach. The word that comes to mind when I think about my summers as a child is carefree. How much "carefree - nothing to do - use my imagination" time do my boys have? Not much and maybe not enough. Again, something to ponder.