How sweet it was. Time seemed to stretch out before us until forever. Long, hot days with no plans but so many important things to do. Summer was the time when we created our own world and gave flight to our fantasies. The free time was occasionally punctuated by Little League, swimming, music lessons, summer reading at the Library, day trips to wherever and, of course, the family vacation. But in between, in that golden time, we had to figure out what to do all by ourselves and to deal with our peers in an unstructured setting; just like real life. To this day I can feel the magic of those childhood summers. They are among my most treasured memories.

This time of year brings those memories to mind. With them comes my fear that today’s children may be so over scheduled and pre-programmed in the name of "opportunity" or just keeping them busy, that they will never experience the freedom and joy that was summer to me. It will be a sad loss to our world if they miss that experience.

About now I bet you’re asking yourself "What can I do to make John’s summer better?". Why, thanks for asking. It’s really quite simple. I want you to all get together and schedule your family vacations for the same two weeks! Any two weeks is fine by me. OK, that’s probably not going to happen so the next best thing is to be sure that we all communicate about what is going on.

First off, from my end, things continue pretty much the same. On your end, however, things are different. Gone is the regular school year schedule. Now there are day camps, vacations and other activities that may require rescheduling some lessons. The good news is that everybody else is doing the same thing so there are usually openings to trade IF… you let me know in time. It’s very difficult to do much on 24 hrs notice. As the saying goes, "Spontaneity Happens", but the cancellation rules still apply. A better solution is for all us adults to plan ahead so there will be plenty of fun to go around and the kids can take advantage of all that extra practice time.

Speaking of which, summer is a great time to encourage the kids to get together and jam. It doesn’t have to be a big production. Two guitars can trade some licks and play songs together. Order pizza and jam into the night. No worries about that "school night" stuff. Just let the music go and have some fun. After all, that’s what Summer is all about