Theme for June - Summer Fun

I don’t know if this is just me but my childhood summers always seemed to be long, hot, and endlessly sunny. I recall the trips to the beach, the ice creams, paddling pools in the back garden, lots of soft drinks, and so on. The highlight was always the family holiday. My family camped, first in tents, later in caravans.

So there are plenty of angles to take for your flash fiction piece for this final edition of Mom’s Favorite Reads. Think about what your character would consider to be summer fun. Think about why your character considers something fun. Are they hankering back to their childhood memories here? Are they right to do so?

Brigade annual camp. The Girls’ Brigade is a Christian based organisation. It was similar to the Guides but was more closely linked to the church.

Our brigade summer camps were usually held at a UK coastal resort and we stayed in church halls, using sleeping bags etc. We would be split into two teams and have different duties. One team would do the cleaning. Another would prepare meals. Then the following day the duties would be swapped around.

We spent most of the day itself on the beach and learned to work as teams (which is why we also had jobs to do). Plus there was all the fun of giggling and chatting long after “lights out”. Everyone did that! We lived for the tuck shop too.

We also prepared our own evening entertainment - singing, fancy dress competitions (the best one was with one girl who pretended she was a caterpillar. She just used her sleeping bag for that! We could only use what we had to hand).

So think about summer camping experiences. Could your characters tell their stories about the fun they had here or did they loathe every minute and have to pretend they were having fun because they didn’t want to let anyone else down?

You could write a flash piece showing a character and a special childhood summer which impacted them. I take this approach with my flash tale below.

One of the highlights of my summers way back when was when I went on the Girls’

Of course summer isn’t fun for all. Not everyone copes well with the higher temperatures, soaring pollen counts etc. So could your character’s story be about how they did manage to have summer fun despite that?

As ever, you have 300 words, and I look forward to reading your stories. It has been a joy to write for Mom’s Favorite Reads and to read your stories. Let’s make the last lot special!

My Special Summer

by Allison Symes

This summer will be different. I won’t be left behind again. They tease because I read, write, and draw. I had to do what they did. They said I was a nerd and a baby. So I learned and not just basics. When we go out this summer, they’ll see I’m not a baby this summer.

What did I do? I learned to swim. Now I swim like a fish. Last year I was like a brick. They laughed. I cried. And I’ve got a pretty costume. It’s purple with mermaids on it. ***

It didn’t work. I swam. They liked my costume. They said I’d done well.

But they’d given up swimming. It was so last year, they said. The thing for this year was to walk for miles on the beach and see how far you could get before having to come back. It’d be safe, they said. There were help points everywhere. That, to be fair, is true. They did ever so well. I made it halfway. They forgot I’m younger and shorter. I couldn’t keep up. ***

This summer has been brilliant. I’ve swum. I’ve walked. I’ve gone camping with the family. And I’ve forgotten them - okay, almost forgotten. They’ve been asking to see me. I suppose they’ve missed having a kid hanging on their every word, wanting to be them.

I won some competitions this summer. One of my drawings won second prize. My mermaid story won first prize. Both were in our local newspaper. Everyone sees that here.

I also had cash prizes, enough to get my next swimming costume, and arty stuff. You should have seen their faces when they saw me spending my money and I told them where it came from. That was fun!

Allison Symes is published by Chapeltown Books, CafeLit, and Bridge House Publishing. She is author of the flash fiction collections- Tripping The Flash Fantastic and From Light to Dark and Back Again. Find her story videos, at https://www.youtube.com/ channel/UCPCiePD4p_vWp4bz2d80SJA/ Allison blogs for online magazine, Chandler’s Ford Today. Her weekly column can be found at http://chandlersfordtoday.co.uk/author/allison-symes/ She also blogs for Authors Electric and More Than Writers, the blog spot for the Association of Christian Writers.

Shadows

and Sun

by Jenny Sanders

Squinting down to the sand, Marilyn watched two of her grandchildren valiantly building a complex castle, complete with a moat, towers, and defenses against the incoming tide. Her daughter was splashing in the shallows with little Bethany; her son racing young Adrian to rescue the coloured beachball as it bobbed on the waves.

Marilyn closed her eyes, luxuriating on the warm towel, allowing the rhythm of the summer waves to lull her into a state of semi-slumber.

Drifting between sleep and wakefulness, daydream and memory mixed in a tableau of pleasure from yesteryear: rock pools and icecream, picnics and gritty sandwiches, fresh breezes and fields of ripe corn. She was laughing with old friends again; tumbling through pastures with her sun-kissed siblings: milking cows; stacking bales of fresh straw; stooking sheaves harvested the old way, ready for the thatchers; striding through fields of buttercups; farmhouse teas, and stretching her legs to reach the pedals of the battered tractor. Images piled on one another, flicking in front of her eyelids in a celebratory dance.

A stone digging into her thigh brought her abruptly back to the present.

Hugging her knees to her chest, she wondered whether she had given her own children the childhood they deserved. She had so wanted them to know the carefree days she had enjoyed herself. The realization that none of us can duplicate our experiences for those we love had felt like a bereavement; a grief that had no resting place. Marilyn wasn’t one for recriminations, and gently reminded herself that she had always sought to do her best by them.

Here, on the beach amongst the holiday makers, the echoes of her own treasured memories gave way to yells of delight as her family made memories of their own.

Jenny Sanders is a writer, speaker, encourager and mentor. She loves writing, reading and walking in nature whenever she can. For the past several years she’s lived between the beautiful cities of Bath, UK and Cape Town, S Africa. Her exciting and humorous new children’s book The Magnificent Moustache and Other Stories is now available published by The Conrad Press.