My first book - Summer Sleep-Away

The best memories I have from my childhood are from sleep-away summer camp. Sure I grew up on a block with lots of kids. Sure we played sports every day and rode our bikes to the pond and to the pizza and ice cream shops in the neighborhood. But the really good times, the childhood adventures that most stick with me, the memories that are firmly and forever embedded in my mind are the ones from camp. The friends from camp. The first girlfriend, the canoe trip and overnight. The goal I scored in the intercamp soccer game. Flying wedgies and late night raids. Freedom from parents!!!! These are the things that are summer camp. These are the things that go into making our children's childhood memories. I have three boys of my own and the two things I wish for them more than anything else is that they be happy and independent. I believe going away to camp for a month or two every summer goes a long way towards meeting those goals.

It's rained a lot this summer. More rain than I usually care for. But I mus tadmit, I do like the rain. I like the sound of it, I like the smell and most of all, I like the guilt free pleasure it affords me of being able to stay indoors. While the dark clouds above shower us with pellets of rain, I enjoy being inside all warm and dry and cozy. It's that primeval feeling of shelter that pulls at me. My caveman ancestry, in all likelihood, that draws me inside to where its safe. I remember as a kid loving the feeling of being all snuggled up under the covers in my bed while the rain beat on the roof over my head. I recall those summer nights at Sleep-away camp when the lightning would strike just outside our window and light up the night sky and the thunder would come crashing afterward and we'd all scream and try to scare each other.
Yeah, for me the rain is childhood memories and feelings of security. So this summer, this rainy wet summer has done wonders for my personal well

being.