I’ve always gone to summer school or summer fun during the summer. But this one time, I begged my mother,  if I could stay home and  play with the neighborhood children. I think I was about 7 or 8 years old. My mother agreed and left me home with a list of 10  chores to do everyday, to keep me busy and out of trouble. She gave me 50 cents allowance to spend.

We lived at the end of a lane, and there was a corner store at it’s beginning.  Every morning I would take a short walk to the  store and take my time choosing what I could buy with my 50 cents.  I usually bought only 3 comics, Chinese seeds, candies and a coke. There were so many comics to choose from, Little Lulu, Archie and his gang, Casper the friendly ghost,Lil Lotto, Superman, Chip and Dale chipmunks, Dennis the menace, Beetle Bailey, Richie Rich, that I ended up with stacks of them in my closet.  It was a lot of fun deciding everyday which one to buy and it took time trying to remember if I had already bought it the other day.  There was so much candies and seeds to choose from.  Some of my favorites were, mango seed ( dry or wet),Li Hing  Mui(dry, wet, salty, seedless,sweet), crack seed, cherry seed, preserved plum(big green and round), tootsie roll, bubble gum, juice sticks, liqurice, red vines, chocolate covered raisins,malted balls and tablets in a bottle, Jujubees, Tomo Ame with a free toy(kokeshi doll), Cracker Jacks with it’s little prize in the box, animal cookies, Big Hunk, Look candy bar, lolli pops, crazy corn nuts, assorted ice cream bars, milk duds, candy dots on a roll of paper, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, and etc.  There were so many flavors of bottle soda to choose from, like creme, vanilla, lime, strawberry, Dr.Pepper, Green River, grape and etc .

When I got home after that, I would turn on the TV and watch movies and cartoons and enjoy all the snacks I had just bought and then later read all the comics.  I did that everyday and enjoyed not going to school, but the fun lasted only for a short while!  All my friends were busy with summer fun and classes so I was left with no one to play with in the neighborhood.

Some of the chores I was assigned to do then were, wash the clothes by hand and hang them out to dry, starch and iron them, clean and wax the floors, clean the toilets, do the dishes , clean and defrost the refrigerator and icebox, dust and polish the furniture, polish the silverware and fix the beds, straighten the pillows on the couch, cook the rice, wash the screens, scrub the shower and the curtain, and etc. Just an hour before my mother would come home, I’d rush around trying to finish all the chores that I was assigned to do in that short time.  I got yelled at a lot for doing such a bad job of cleaning.

After just a month and a half of all this playing and enjoying myself, I went to my mother and cried and cried. I was so, so sad, lonely, and unhappy with staying at home,  that I vowed never to spend a Summer vacation home ever again and begged to go to school or summer fun just like the rest of the other children.

There after, I attended summer schools, or summer fun, or YMCA and was a jr. leader,and latter on I worked at the Pineapple Cannery during summers. For….       ” my summers “were never dull or  boring, evermore!  In fact, neither has my LIFE!