The Best Summer Ever

Kay’s view

When I was twelve, we lived for the entire summer on a 31 ft cabin cruiser. The marina was on an island in the middle of the St Lawrence River. I read books all day from one of the best kids libraries ever by riding the launch over to exchange books several times each week. To this day, a vacation of reading is still my favorite!

That same summer I also received a scholarship to attend a week-long painting class in town. My parents had planned to drive home for that week and could not change their plans. I don’t remember what I had to promise, but the upshot was that I spent a week on my own (the first ever!) with no more than a friendly neighbor’s occasional check up. I cooked, cleaned, took myself across the channel to class, painted a number of canvasses and tried hard to stay up past my bedtime (too tired!).

It was a glorious summer before seventh grade, when who you knew and who knew you, who spoke to whom, and peer pressure changed my world forever.