SUMMER DAZE

Enjoy the lazy, hazy days while they last

Summer is a season primarily defined by lack of school.

We’ve all been there at one time or another — there’s the school year, and then there’s summer. And summer was a time we looked forward to because it promised minimal responsibility, which is an asset unappreciated until it’s too late.

Once we start working year-round jobs, summer seems to lose its significance. The days of wistfully staring at a ticking clock don’t disappear, but no matter how many times we urge the clock along during an otherwise bleary day, and no matter how nice of a guy or gal the boss really is, we know we won’t be enjoying a three-month break in the middle of the year.

If you happen to have kids, particularly kids now at home after grinding through the school year, it doesn’t take long — two or three hours perhaps — to start wondering exactly when summer will be over and what day school begins again.

That feeling is predictable, and it’s understandable, and it’s inevitable. We don’t appreciate summer when it’s ours, and we look forward to it most when it’s gone.

My early, and best, summers were unplanned. My parents didn’t worry much about where I was or what I was doing — they knew I would be with friends or reading or playing baseball.

Aimless summers don’t happen much anymore, and they certainly don’t happen much around here. Urban parents, grandparents and caregivers plan children’s days like military exercises, with wake-up times dictated by camps and babysitters and programs and work schedules. And heaven forbid that a kid is left to wander from house to house looking for friends — what’s the point in visiting someone w hen you can simply text “yo” and start a 90-minute monosyllabic conversation from the comfort of your bed?

True, texting is a form of aimless, summerlike self-entertainment, but I haven’t seen much opportunity for self-enrichment in the process. And the very core of texting is imparting thought in small chunks rather than spending larger chunks of time interacting personally with each other.

I speak as both a victim and an accomplice in all of the above, and I wish there was something I could tell myself to ease this burden and return to the days when summer simply allowed us to unwind and reload.

Instead, I’ll leave you with something I read recently in a daily devotional book that our church serves up for free. The woman doing the writing is Melora Hirschmann from Nebraska; I don’t know her, have never talked with her and couldn’t pick her out of an icecream truck lineup.

“My mother is in the last stages of her battle with cancer. Each day that I have with her is

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Parents and children and the rest of us will all be gone soon enough, just as the passing years make summer relatively meaningless. And thanks to our own restlessness, there’s rarely enough time, even during the summer, to enjoy the day with someone we love.

But more than likely, summer is one of the only times we still have to do something like that.

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Mayoral Candidates Vie In Runoff Election

I agree the runoff looks like an uphill battle for Kunkle [Advocate Back Talk Blog, “Ron Natinsky’s third-place finish”, May 17], but I think a low turnout will favor Kunkle and could put him over the top. In my early-voting precinct (St. Luke’s) the place was littered with campaign signs, and not a one had Kunkle’s name, but he carried the precinct easily. If I were Kunkle’s campaign manager, I would put him on a soap box in a downtown public square and have him court questions from the public and media drive bys, have him nonstop in the public eye. —CITIZEN

KANE

Do the voters really want change? Rawlings would be a CEO mayor just like Leppert (but less creepy looking). —DOWNTOWN

WORKER

I am encouraged by the results seeing how Kunkle got within 9 percentage points of Rawlings while being outspent by almost $1 million. He beat out the city council’s pick in Natinsky. Kunkle didn’t have big endorsers like Roger Staubach or Ron Kirk. Sure, Kunkle could be considered an insider, but his record speaks for itself. Kunkle has shown he can make the tough, unpopular choices that ultimately benefit his department. I don’t think Kunkle has much shot at winning but runoffs can go either way.

—MICHAEL MOSTELLER

Construction Starts On Woodrow Addition

How wonderful [“Construction begins this month at Woodrow Wilson”, April Advocate]! Always loved our Woodrow Wilson High School, precious friends and teachers. I am a 1949 grad. So many changes have occurred, but this is really fabulous. Can’t wait to see it when it is finished.

—BETTY

Gibbs Dunning Hays Stockbridge

I have fond memories of Woodrow students and teachers. I am a 1962 grad and have lived out of the state since graduation. Maybe now I will come back and visit Dallas to see the new addition and facelift. I didn’t know the school was a historic landmark.

—DENISE CANTER KLEIN

TRADER JOE’S COMING TO DALLAS

I do not understand why every commercial real estate person in Dallas says that there is not enough density in Lakewood/East Dallas [Advocate Back Talk Blog, “A Trader Joe’s in

Lakewood? Casa Linda?”, May 9]. They say that about every real estate deal that might possibly come to East Dallas, and as far as I can tell, every upscale, larger retailer that has opened over here has thrived. Besides, Trader Joe’s is a small store by design — about the size of half a regular grocery store — and like the author of this article said, it is a destination. People would come from all over to go to Trader Joe’s. If they put it in Allen or Southlake, I will just puke. East Dallas is the only part of Dallas that would be a perfect fit for Joe’s.

—EASTDALLAS4EVER

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I’ve been to Trader Joe’s in Seattle and Phoenix. There they tend to put their stores in the ’burbs, not in the city itself. I have been dying for Trader Joe’s to come here. Casa Linda doesn’t fit either the demographic or the psychographic. I agree that East Dallas in particular doesn’t get credit for density or other desirable qualities. —VIRGINIA

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What about HillsideVillage, the old Tuesday Morning space? Would that be large enough? Seems like the perfect location. —MAG

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OLD-SCHOOLARBY’S SIGN REMOVED FROM GARLAND ROAD

I guess it had to make way for yet another payday or title loan store [Advocate Back Talk Blog, “Garland Road landmark is gone”, May 10].

—KEVIN

I grew up in that area, and I remember the Safeway where the Auto Zone and furniture store is, the Dairy Queen at Easton and Garland, the Sizzler (pawn shop now), the Pizza Inn (Medical office now), Wendy’s (Mexican restaurant now), Taco Bell (not sure what it is now), McDonald’s (Keller’s), Great American Hero, and the Handy Dan hardware store where the thrift store is now. It seems like McShan Florist and the car wash are the old-timers still standing. —RICARDO

Correction

In the May 2011 calendar, the Swiss Avenue Mother’s Day Home Tour photograph should have been credited to Carol Hensley Photography.