Summertime

In honor of the first day of summer, my friend Karen and I played hopscotch on the sidewalk on Greenmount Avenue. I have deep fondness for summertime, inspired by memories of my Mama and Papa's house in Dillsburg, PA. My three sisters and I nearly lived there over the summer vacation. We spent our days barefoot, playing kickball, hopscotch and jacks, or jumping rope on the black-topped driveway. We shelled peas and snipped beans, all freshly harvested from my grandparent's lush garden. In the evenings, we chased lightning bugs and sipped my Mama's Pink Lassies (a yummy milkshake of ice cream orange and cranberry juices.) Those days are filled with good memories I will always cherish!

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Wallflower

I didn't go to my prom, in fact I never went to a high school dance. I was extremely shy and could barely speak to boys. My senior year I developed a huge crush on Doug, a sweet football player and fellow art student. I felt queasy and lightheaded every time I saw him! I wanted him to ask me to prom. He was in bowling club, so I joined to get closer to him. I was on a girls team, but I could watch him across the lanes. Doug knew that I liked him, and evidently my Art and Trigonometry teachers prodded him to ask me to prom. I thought it was only a matter of time until my dream would come true.

One afternoon during bowling club, my teammate Missy came into the lane squealing with delight and announced that Doug had just asked her to the prom! I was devastated. I could barely breath as Owner of a Lonely Heart played on the video monitors. I spent prom night alone on my Mama's couch watching The Blob. I felt pathetic!

Despite the tragic tale of the prom, this story does have a happy ending. After graduation, Doug and I ended up at the same party. I don't know how it happened, but we started talking. A week later he asked me to the movies. He was my first boyfriend and we dated for three years.

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Wallflower by Joanie Biller

Lucky

I don't consider myself to be especially lucky, but I've always had a knack for finding four leaf clovers. One summer afternoon, I found over forty of them in my grandmother's backyard. I was around ten years old and easily prone to obsessive acts. I was in the yard for hours compelled by desire to find just one more. Since then I often find four leaf clovers by accident, just by glancing as I walk along.

Yesterday, I looked for four leaf clovers in the big patches at Robert E. Lee Park. It was an especially hot day, so I only looked for forty-five minutes. I found three lucky charms.

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Lucky by Erin Piper

Lucky by Louis and Peter Walsh