Mrs. Sanders stood in front of the class. “It’s been a pleasure to be your teacher this year, and I hope everyone has a great summer. Good luck in Junior High this fall. The bell rang loud and clear. The class waited in anticipation. Mrs. Sanders smiled. “Ok. Go enjoy your summer vacation.”
They all rushed to the door. In the great commotion, you would hear a, “Bye Mrs. Sanders,” dispersed in with the rest of the noise. It was summer at last. Nate ran down the street with the rest of the fellas, everyone talking about the things they could do in the summer. They were finally out of grade school, and next year they would start Jr. High. Nate was looking forward to it. He almost felt grown now.
Nate pulled out his report card. All S’s, for satisfactory. Just what he thought. “I got all S’s”, he beamed. The rest of the fellas all pulled out their report cards. They all had done pretty good. Travis got three N’s, for, Not Satisfactory, but he still passed. Everyone else did pretty good.
In the fall, they’d start the seventh grade at Bryant Jr. High. Bryant had a little bit of a reputation, and Nate was a little nervous about going there, but the school was right in the neighborhood, and most of his friends were going there, so he figured it would be alright.
They made their usual stop at Dave’s Superette for chips and pop. Nate liked to get the Long Johns. Next they would stop at Ben Franklin’s Five and Dime store for penny candy. Next stop was the park, to eat their snacks, and to hang out for awhile before heading to their respective homes. It sure did feel good to be out for the summer.
Nate, Benny and Ro, short for Roland, were going to start a lawn mowing business over the summer, to make some extra money. Allowance money didn’t go as far as it used to. In two weeks, Nate would be off to YMCA camp. He liked going to camp. The previous summer he had been to this Methodist camp, and it was pretty fun. He was looking forward to Y camp.
“Ro gonna be rollin’ in money.” Roland said, referring to himself in the third person. He also had a paper route, so along with mowing lawns, he figured he was going to make a lot of money.
Other than camp, mowing lawns, and paper routes, the guys planned a summer of playing basketball, playing baseball, going to movies, and hanging out at the park, and eating lots of junk. The perfect way to spend the summer.