OK, here’s a seasonal palate-cleanser to help connect the dots between then and now: A while back, I asked what the you of 1983 would have to say about the you of 2008 if you could meet. As we close in on Labor Day, what would You 1983 think of the way you spent summer 2008?
Thanks to abundant free-lance opportunities, I was able to enjoy real summer flex time for the first time since I started working office jobs 20 years ago. We explored New York neighborhood by neighborhood and capped off the summer with a trip to the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee, home of Dollywood. (My younger self would appreciate the urban cool of the former and the camp appeal of the latter, but he’d be amused at the planning it takes to orchestrate forays for a family of four. Don’t you just, like, get in the car? And if he could hear me scolding the kids, he’d probably want to kick me.)
Your turn: We want to know what you did this summer!
Did you actually go to Dollywood? That sounds like fun. Dolly Parton is one of the greatest country singers of all time (definitely my favorite female country singer ever), in spite of all the corny songs she’s recorded. I have no idea what her idea of a good amusement park is though.
Cant say Ive done much all summer besides work, but I’ve been enjoying it anywhow… much nicer summer weather on the west side of town (where I’ve recently moved), plus access to a swimming pool.
this is a sad one indeed, summer for me pretty much ended on the day i became old enough to legally work. since then it’s pretty much been summer=work combined with oppressive heat. so this summer has pretty much been relegated to weekend affairs involving drink, occasional gigs playing country music with pickup bands in either odessa or oklahoma city and the occasional prison rodeo or drunken canoe trip with oil field characters, who by the way really really really know how to party.
Dollywood was a hoot and a half … Much Gospel religion mixed with thrill rides and great music. (Wikipedia suggests that Dolly herself is more of a deist, but the park has a very Baptist flavor … Recovering magicians: There’s a magic shop in Dollywood that’s chock-full of Bible homilies told through sleight of hand — honest!)
Dave, you’re right-on about Dolly’s mad skillz; come summertime, we often end up at water parks where Jimmy Buffett is a dominant part of the soundtrack … This was way cooler.
We also went to Dixie Stampede (a Medieval Times-style re-creation of the Civil War) and Parrot Mountain, which was created in 1995 when the founder had a dream that God told him to move to the Tennessee hills and establish a 20-acre sanctuary for abused and abandoned parrots. (Later I’ll upload a photo of me crawling with big yellow parrots.)
BOogie: May I join your band??
man that would be great! i tell you it is some of the best fun i’ve ever had, for a native san diegan to be playing for crowds that really are dressed up, boot-scootin’, brawling, cat-fights, the whole deal, is so fantastic. i honestly thought that this part of the country as depicted in films and such was all made up, but no it really is that way.
My younger self would say “omg. you look like my mother. how did you get to be so boring!” or maybe: “you look really happy”.
Summer, outside of the heat and the invasion of tourists, has never been different than any other time of year for me. always been more of an “indoor type” -- with interests in books, records, movies….tho’ it has been fun taking my two year old son to balboa park or the pool and proxying into his excitement.
In my youth I was either wasted, going to get wasted or recovering from being wasted.
“I was a hippie I was a burnout I was a dropout I was out of my head..”
I didn’t wake up in the morning, I came to. I guess there’s more parties in the summer and thus, I can’t remember them! It is so great to just be here and checking stuff out as it comes along.
This summer San Diego weather has been delicious…warm with a cool breeze all day long. no complaints. it’s all good.
(Matthew: dolly’s face is starting to scare small children!)
Man if I could have seen myself today painting the inside of a bottling plant in 104 degree heat back in 1983. I most likley would have jumpep off Sun Set Cliffs.
After work I take my 2 1/2 year old son to the park, we have a good time, I would rather be taking him to the beach to run around. My son can run and run and run……..
I have lived Sacramento for a few years now. I will be moving to San Diego in 4 months. I can not wait, San Diego looks real good from here.
Matthew makes like St. Francis at Parrot Mountain:
BTW, I forgot to mention another key innovation in my adult summer fun: Shorts. I wouldn’t have been caught dead in shorts in 1983. (Paul Kaufman will recall me backpacking around southern Europe summer of 1986 in a leather jacket, black jeans and Doc Martens … Yeeeesh!)
I have to admit, Dolly is starting to look a little like Michael Jackson.
the summer is so far from over here in fla. the opressive heat and humidity that only vietnam vets seem to be able to relate to, will let up around the end of december. huricane seasons comming on and thats always a hoot. my wife has been wanting a family vacation to dollywood for years, matt made me look bad agian. my son max is ten and is on the higher functioning end of autism. this makes my life so much kooler than it would be if we were left to my little plans and designes. the waves have been up now and agian, so for the second year i’ve been trying to teach him to surf. 10.2 nice round nose. he has a huge fear of fish touching him. inspiration to get up and stay up? we made a trip down to edisons winter house. max likes to make things and wire them for sound and lighting, so i thought ? he feigned intrest to be kind i think. at least through half the tour. the other half he found value in. we go ally cruzing and liberate old broke lawn mowers and computers left out for the trash, take them home and try and fix them or at least see whats inside. in a couple months he has, as his reward for all he does, max has requested a weekend at a star trek convention in orlando. couldent i just ware a bunny suit and wave at trafic on our local main drag or somthing ? the me of then would be slack jaw amazed at how kool i am as a dad and a husband and friend. the me then never thought it was in the cards to survive let completely alone thrive and live as i do. i’m so many of the things i admired in others and wanted in my life. i am the dad i wanted, plus. it sounds realy bad to say all this stuff but its true. my wife slim is my best friend and our house is an outragious fun happy kinda wholesome place. with tattoos and foul language dogs and motorcycles music and books, dust and art. this is who i never thought i could be. i have no idea how it happend. some times it sounds realy silly to tell the truth. hmmm.
and matt. it is so nice to see you.
Cricket: I am such a huge fan of yours! Our part of New Jersey (West Orange) is home to Edison’s Menlo Park lab, but it’s been closed for renovations since we moved.
Dollywood even has a guitar-and-dulcimer store. And our cabin was beautiful and big and dirt-cheap. I was seriously picturing some kind of Che Underground hillbilly hoedown here. Tell me if folks wanna meet in Pigeon Forge.
>>How many go-cart tracks and putt-putts can you fit on the side of a mountain
Scott: About 500! LOL
Funny you should ask, because tonight I’m leaving on a train trip from Oakland. We are going to Portland for a couple of days, then by train to Glacier National Park for several days, and back through Seattle. Looking forward to a few days off. Will let you know how it went when I return.
Dean: Bon voyage … If you eat at any restaurants in Seattle, check the kitchen for Tommy Clarke!
Pretty much staying home and working this summer, having done the big travel in the spring. Honeymoon in Paris! Which of course was fabulous, but what made it even more special was being able to have coffee with Jerome and Diane Rothenberg, the wonderfully warm and interesting parents of our favorite blog founder 🙂
BTW, this marked the second time in 22 years that Paul met my parents in Paris.
The first time, Mr. Kaufman and I were both carrying guitars, and — accompanied by Rob Labbe on a borrowed drum kit — we joined my father at his poetry reading at the Centre Pompidou to perform “Chanson Dada” for France’s intellectual elite.
No Dixie Stampede, I grant you, but I’d still love to see videotape of that gig! 🙂
OK …time for some music.
It isnt Sunday yet, but let’s let Dolly and her big hair save our souls anyway…
The guitar playing is pretty hot too.
Beautiful.
I’m with boogie on this one- summer, winter, no difference for me as far as “vacation” is concerned. In winter we surf, in summer it’s flat.
It’s never flat at Dolly World…… Sorry!
Returning to a deciduous climate after 25 years in California restored my sense of seasonality. I used to complain about the lack of seasons, and fall in the Northeast is beautiful … But come February, I’m rueing all those underappreciated years of climate control!
For the purposes of this Che Underground memory exercise, the youthful mystique of summer vacation and the mild San Diego weather have distorted my timeline; I tend to remember all our gatherings as summertime ones. (Flyers have been the key to reconstructing when stuff actually happened.)
Well, I too had fun at a country singers place in Tennessee. More to come.
First off, in the 1980’s I was sure I would be taking a dirt nap by 2008. Other than not being gone by 2008 I think I wanted then what I have now so weird enough I would not be to shocked. screaming at the kids to turn off lights would of made me cringe.
OK,
We only live about 200 miles from Dollywood and I’ve never been there. I have been up in that area quite a bit but never did the tourist stuff. OK OK -- I was at Loretta Lynn’s.
Loretta Lynn has the Amatuer Motocross Nationals at her ranch in Tennessee, has had it there for the last 28 years. My kids race Nationally and to make it to Lorretta’s is it baby, 22,000 tried to qualify to get there and only 1,200 make it. This was our second year there, my 12 year old daughter made it this year and she and my 6 year old son did last year.
Basicly we go up there for 10 days, stay in my RV and do a lot of hanging out, nice poool, horse stables, a nice river flows through her property, tubing and fishing. And then there are 10,000 crazy motocross fans and the best racing all year. At night it turns crazy with over 2000 golf carts and any variation of a cart flying around. Much beer is consumed and if it were the 80’s I would be halling ass around making trouble but it is 2008 so I park my golf cart and sit and drink beer and watch the young idiots zip around and get in trouble.
We do go tour her propery and go in her house which is cool, they even have a replica of her house in WV, The Coal Miners Daughters house. She usually makes an appearance each year.
We also hit the beach quite a bit and I’m teaching the kids to Skimboard and ride a unicycle.
OK
I’m a proud papa, enough rambling.
Hey Mark,
I hope you visited Fist City on your trip, too.
Ray,
That was classic.
I may send a note to the event promoters and ask them to name the beer tent Fist City.
Mark, you made me laff! (BTW, Mr. Mullen and I have already traded RV lore on back channels; I’m the proud owner of a Rockwood pop-up trailer that can conceivably sleep eight good friends. It doesn’t hold a candle to Mark’s magnificent vehicle, but it’s our beloved home on yearly gatherings with Nancy’s family in western Michigan.)
Ray: The serene expression on Ms. Lynn’s face is transcendent!