Parisian Phoenix Publishing

A seasonal essay by Larry Sceurman

My lovely wife, Barbara, and I were discussing where we should go on vacation. Then, we started to reminisce about the vacations that we had taken in the past. That conversation led us to chat about what vacations we had with our families and the perspective we had as children. And that led me to what I’m writing now, what I am sharing with you…

May 27, 2024: Memorial Day

Memorial Day stands as the official, unofficial start of this summer. Today is very dark, cloudy, and rainy today, but my mind goes back to the Memorial Days as a kid growing up in the 50s and 60s.

Sometime between Easter and Memorial Day, I usually got a new pair of Wrangler jeans and US Ked, black high-top sneakers. My new jeans and sneakers, along with a T-shirt was my standard dress for the summer.

I can remember cutting peony flowers with my father and putting them in coffee cans to take to the cemetery. My father’s generation referred to Memorial Day as Decoration Day and decorated the graves of fallen soldiers as well as loved ones. My wife, Barbara, tells me that she did the same thing with her father.

It was a good feeling on Memorial Day as a kid, knowing that school was going to end in a couple of weeks. I got my summer sneakers on my feet. The windows were down in the car and I could stick my arm out trying to touch the leaves of the trees in the cemetery. Summer was here at last.  

Summer and Vacation

The word summer comes from the Old English word for season, Sumor. In Dutch, Zomer; German, Sommer; Sanskrit, Ssma (meaning year), and Proto-Germanic, Sumr.

In general, summer means the longest and hottest days of the year.

But we’re also thinking about vacation here. The origin of the word vacation (in Latin vacare) refers to the concept of “to unoccupy” or “away from duty.”

What if I told you that the idea of a summer vacation comes from a book published it 1869, offering city dwellers an escape?

In “Where Was the Birthplace of the American Vacation?” (published in Smithsonian Magazine in April 2013), author Tony Perrottet connects summer vacation to a guidebook written by William H. H. Murray, a young preacher from Boston, in 1869. He wrote about the beauty and the benefits of the Adirondack Mountains.

Murray’s book caught on and the city dwellers from New York and Boston came to the Adirondacks to find peace, rest, and relaxation.

Perrottet explored the response these 19th Century urban residents had to the guidebook in the article, which I encourage everyone to read if you have the time.

The scions of New York City took to declaring that they would “vacate” their city homes for their lakeside summer retreats, and the term “vacation” replaced the British holiday in common place. As fellow Bostonian Wendell Phillips put it, Murray’s book had “kindled a thousand campfires and taught a thousand pens how to write of nature.” 

As is my custom when I explore these topics, I asked a few friends what they thought of when they heard the word summer. Most of them answered hot, sun, and vacation.

One fellow said flip flops.

I asked what they thought of when they heard the word vacation. Most responded with a destination or a place such as “the shore,” the state of Maine, a lake, the mountains. Others said rest, relaxation, and “to get away.”

When I asked what happened if I put the words together, Summer Vacation, what do you think of then?

Some became more specific on the place of their summer vacation. Again, rest and relaxation was mentioned and several said travel. Others said it took them back to childhood, and summer vacation meant getting out of school, which meant freedom.

Anything could happen during the summer, especially on vacation.

Where to Take a Vacation

I realized that there are three ways to take a vacation.

1. Number one: I refer this to as the traditional vacation. That is where the vacationers go back to the same place year after year after year. It is a tradition and it becomes sacred homage, a pilgrimage. It is comfortable and you know exactly what to expect. This adds to the relaxation and rest part of the stay. People enjoy seeing the same familiar places and faces. My friend, Geoff, told me that his kids would rather go back to their usual vacation spot at Lake George and see their summer friends then go to Disney World.
2. The second type of vacation is travel. That most every year, you go on an adventure to a place you’ve never been before in hopes to see and experience something new and exciting. 
3. The third is to stay home or maybe do a day trip or visit a friend. This vacationer is big on their rest and relaxation and getting away from it all can be done in your own backyard.

For Barbara and me, we have enjoyed experiencing the great outdoors and did a lot of tent camping at new places for us, but we also spent many a vacation in Maine frequenting the same sites and places of delight.

Barbara’s family went to Higgins Beach, eight miles south of Portland, Maine, from the time she was a little girl to the time she was in high school and they loved every minute of it.

My family were Jersey Shore people. Once, or maybe twice, we had a cottage for the week at Long Beach Island, New Jersey, but most of the time it was just two or three days and sometimes even just one day at the Jersey Shore.

Generally, people have a vacation story: telling of their childhood and where their family would go on vacation, or as an adult, where they would take their family on vacation.

Amongst each teller there were common threads of smiles, faces aglow, and eyes that sparkled with genuine delight. There was always laughter within the story and almost always their story ended with a sigh, a sigh that suggested, “Wouldn’t it be nice to go back in time and revisit our memories of the past.”

These particular moments have ended and time moves on, the only thing we have is the memory. A memory is what living in the moment creates.

Everyone that told me a story relived that moment and felt the joy or excitement, the humor or sadness. Just for a moment, they were there, they were: eleven-years-old and their dog, Skipper, was by their side. They were climbing that mountain, catching that fish, eating that lobster, and relaxing in the sun. It’s true because they did it. 

I think this is a good thing. No matter what age 7 or 75, we can still escape and have a vacation from life. To allow ourselves to live in the moment and create memories that will be cherished… That is a step in the right direction.

God bless and have fun!

Larry

P.S.   Thanks to all my friends and their wonderful stories.

P.P.S. Parisian Phoenix Publishing will be attending the Dad Fest at the Palmer Park Mall June 15. They publish my books— The Death of Big Butch, a novella set in 1974 that discusses friendship, responsibility and fatherhood, and Coffee in the Morning, my short story collection that combines fact, fiction and fantasy in ways that celebrate family life. They will have signed copies of these books on hand that day.

If you can’t make June 15, you can stop by the mall during regular operation and purchase my books at the Blue Flame Events Retail Store or, if you’re going to downtown Easton, visit Book and Puppet Company as Andy usually has copies on hand.

Art by Larry Sceurman, as part of his “Larryland” handmade greeting card series.