Dan the man

I was never much of a traveler, when I was a kid my parents would stay home during the summer when my brothers and I were vacation from school. Mom didn’t work and Dad was always working, we lived in the suburbs near a lake so everything we wanted to do on vacation we could just walk to the lake and do it, swimming, fishing, boating or just hiking through the woods that surrounded the lake it was all there for us. Growing up in the sixties and seventies I feel I had an amazing childhood, lots of freedom to stretch our imaginations and build lifelong friendships. The neighborhood policed itself and always felt safe. As I was entering my teens my parents rented a cottage near the ocean which felt like we we’re going to another state, but in reality was about a forty five minute drive. Once we arrived it was like a neighborhood reunion as nearly everyone on our street rented cottages there in the summer. The only difference was the smell of the ocean was always present. The moms would congregate in one of the cottages planning the meals, the activities and what to do with the kids and husbands. As a pre-teen struggling to find my way and fairly overweight the last place I wanted to be was the beach… in a bathing suit that my mom picked out.