Delano Herald Journal

Serving the communities of Delano, Loretto, Montrose, MN, and the surrounding area

Sam Schommer Column, 7/24/06



Yes, I know, I practically still am, but I’m talking about all the good times that we had when we couldn’t see past people’s knees.

Like when we were in elementary school, we’d sit on the merry-go-round and yell at the boys to push us faster.

We even had this little chant: “Faster, faster, we want a new master!”

But sadly, we grew up, and now we yell at the boys about different things (Why didn’t you call me when you said you would?).

These days I have to be worried about getting homework done on time, remembering to show up when I’m needed, paying off a car, and fitting in, while still being unique.

I don’t know if all of you remember high school, but man, it can be tough.

Summertime is nice though; a little break from the craziness of the school year.

I’m sure most people can probably remember “the good ‘ol days” and the wonderfulness that ensued, but summertime now is quite different from what you may remember.

Summers now consist of teenagers sitting around the house all day playing video games and rotting away their brains while eating Hot Pockets and Doritos.

Back then, (whenever “then” was) teenagers were working on farms and get this: sweating! Yeah, I know, that’s crazy talk.

Sweat – what’s that?

But honestly, most of us aren’t going to embark on an excessive workout that consists of Pilates, followed by Tae-Bo, followed by aerobics followed by a nice boxing match.

Wow. That sounds like a lot of work . . .

Anyway, kids today aren’t getting out there and “doing.” They’re just laying around and being lazy.

And this could be a problem; but whom am I to be lecturing? I’ve done the sitting around just as much as the rest of you.

Maybe, if things were more fun, we’d be more enticed to sweat.

How often do we get to just have some fun, though? I mean good, old fashioned fun?

Most likely, never.

There’s always some sort of circumstances that get in the way of having fun.

You’re hungry, your back hurts, the trundlers get in your way, the kids are complaining, or some guy behind you just spilled his red slurpie all over your new white shirt.

Not to be specific or anything . . .

When my family goes out for some “fun,” it usually ends up in some kind of catastrophe or something else equally horrific. I’ve gotten quite used to disappointment.

Maybe it’s because of the fact that we’re complainers (not my family in particular, but society in general) that we can’t have fun.

Instead, we complain about what’s NOT fun about the day or event, when what we should be doing is embracing the things that ARE fun.

That brings me back to wishing to be a kid again; kids don’t care about the unfortunate circumstances, they can just enjoy some good-natured, old-fashioned fun, without the hassles.

So, even if we can’t be kids again, we can at least try to enjoy the years that we have left.

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