What did you usually do on your summer vacations as a child?

dilettante said:
Quite a few Summers we got sent to a daily Vacation Bible School for two weeks for intensive churching.

One Summer I got sent to a week-long stint at a Summer Camp for poor and troubled kids. Military discipline, up at Reveille to assemble and salute the flag raising then off for communal showers, in the racks then lights out at Taps. Punctuated by Mess Call and Assembly calls during the day. Swimming, canoeing, archery, bushcraft, lectures on citizenship and responsibility, and lots of calisthenics drills. I must have braided 20 lanyards and key fobs.
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I remember boondoggle braiding, it was a summer craft at the community swimming hole to fill the mandatory time between lunch and swimming.

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No vacations in my family until I was around 11 - when mom & dad split. Mom and my step dad always vacationed without me, because I was way more interested in spending summers at my step grandparents farm with the horses.

My step grandfather was the Pegasus Wings under my feet. He gave me the best foundation for raising/training horses and life in general that any kid could want. My biggest regret is not realizing how important he was until it was too late to tell him.
 

Most often we drove from Chicago to northern Wisconsin and rented a primitive cabin on a lake, usually a different lake each summer. We would fish, swim, and quite often had the whole lake to ourselves. Try and find that today. When I was 11, we drove from Chicago all the way to western Montana, and continued to do that afterwards. Then one year, my sister, mother, and I rebelled and voted to rent a cabin in Wisconsin one more time. My father was utterly disappointed, but my mother was particularly happy.

Later, when I was 17, I left home for good on my own, and became a resident of Montana, where I worked during the week, and played on the weekends in what was my idea of an almost perfect vacation spot. Problem of taking vacations after that was solved. It was right out my back door, and I didn't need to decide where I would rather be.
 
Every summer, my family would drive to a different beach on the East coast (we lived in New York): Wildwood, Virginia Beach, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and Myrtle Beach. After Myrtle Beach, my parents liked that best, so we stuck with that.

Other than the trips, I'd spend summers on my bike or at the local pool with friends. Then, after I was 16, I got a job as a cashier and mostly worked.
 
We were in Ayr a few years ago in the motorhome, it’s a heck of a walk from the Caravan Club site to the beach! We mostly go to Scotland but mainly to Galloway, the Borders or up to Dingwall. We avoid being a nuisance on the NC500.

When I was a child we never had a car. We used to catch the train to North Wales & hire a caravan on one of the big sites on the coast or stay in a boarding house in Blackpool.
 
From the time I was 11 till I left home, my family vacations were a summer filled with taking care of my 3 younger brothers and avoiding my older brother. My parents' vacation was a summer filled with weekends of boating, drinking, fighting and never coming home. There was little stability in the winter but just wait till summer!!!!
When I graduated HS at 16 I was gone. I got a job in a city hours away and lived with friends. The rest is a book.
 
It just occurred to me, at age 8, the summer our family moved West .. my 2 older sisters and I, went to Vacation Bible Camp. My young Aunt was a devoted Christian all her life, and had hopes to make believers of her nieces. I was quite turned off with all the praying .. before all meals, afternoon, and before bedtime.
It was a long three weeks. I was so glad to return home. Auntie "Koko", until her death, kept in touch with me. She was a good woman.

The camp, was Kootenay Camp. I was a shy kid, and was separated from my 2 sisters. We went to Harrison Hot Springs, and I almost went under when we were ordered to go into the ocean. I stated I couldn't swim, but was ordered in, anyway.

That was my one and only vacation.
 
We discovered our whole environment. Ride our bikes everywhere, hiked, walked railway tracks. Out in the morning and back before the streetlights came on. There were fruits everywhere to eat and roadside stands. Sometimes our parents would ship us off out of town to visit other relatives. Our parents hardly ever saw us during the summer and that was cool.
 
My family never actually went on holiday because we moved around a lot and tended to live in places where other people took their holidays. We lived either by the sea or in the countryside. We could spend a day at the beach and then go home, or travel around the little English villages.
 
Yeah, I did my time spending working weeks with cousins at various farms. Here's a 12 minute short, so you can live the experience vicariously:

 
Oldeagle66 said:
We discovered our whole environment. Ride our bikes everywhere, hiked, walked railway tracks. Out in the morning and back before the streetlights came on. There were fruits everywhere to eat and roadside stands. Sometimes our parents would ship us off out of town to visit other relatives. Our parents hardly ever saw us during the summer and that was cool.
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I'm a firm believer that kids today need more of that sort of thing, outdoor play and exploration. That and chores, such as mowing lawns and such. I really think it would do the younger generations a lot of good. Too many kids—not all, I know—are stuck to their phones or their gaming systems.

P.S. I know that makes me sound like an old curmudgeon. 😁
 
KSav said:
I'm a firm believer that kids today need more of that sort of thing, outdoor play and exploration. That and chores, such as mowing lawns and such. I really think it would do the younger generations a lot of good. Too many kids—not all, I know—are stuck to their phones or their gaming systems.

P.S. I know that makes me sound like an old curmudgeon. 😁
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Agreed, being a young kid today looks very depressing. Too much information online, parents always in their faces constantly with outrageous expectations. Just leave them alone and let figure things out on their own and enjoy and discover. They won't break.
 
KSav said:
I'm a firm believer that kids today need more of that sort of thing, outdoor play and exploration. That and chores, such as mowing lawns and such. I really think it would do the younger generations a lot of good. Too many kids—not all, I know—are stuck to their phones or their gaming systems.
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I know what you mean. Try to hire a neighbor kid to do chores and they look at you like you're a freak. Kids don't need the money, I guess. Their parents are ATM machines.
 
debodun said:
I know what you mean. Try to hire a neighbor kid to do chores and they look at you like you're a freak. Kids don't need the money, I guess. Their parents are ATM machines.
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I was shocked and pleasantly surprised when I was walking on my street when a big dog got loose, and two young teens picked rocks and tried to protect me. They didn't know the dog didn't bite, but I did. It was nice though. Then again that was maybe ten years ago.
 
From the time I was in first grade, when we moved from the Eastern Shore of Maryland to Arizona, every summer we would road trip to visit my mother's sister on her farm back in Maryland for 30 days.

Six of us in a 1957 turquoise station wagon just like this one. My parents would lay down the seats and throw a thick pad down, pillows and blankets for us kids; load up a big cooler with cheese and mustard or bologna sandwiches and a round cooler of water. We never stopped, my parents (mom and step dad) would take turns driving 55 HOURS straight, only pee/fuel stops. No hotels, no restaurants.

My Mom kept us busy by expecting us to learn all the states and the capitals, doing spelling assignments, reading so many pages of a book each day, and making list of car tags we saw.

It was the only time we girls would get to see our real father, who also lived near my aunt in Maryland. The best part was seeing and hanging out with our five girl cousins on the 80 acre farm; all NINE of us girls would sleep in three beds upstairs in an old SMALL farmhouse. When young we would pick "pickles" cucumbers and peppers for .25 a bushel and then later, as young teens we would help load hay and alfalfa onto flatbed trucks...pitching hay was much easier than pitching alfalfa, trust me.

Did the hay and such for about 5-6 yeqrs years - the best part was our young uncle who was in the Navy out of Norfolk, VA bringing his service buddies home with him to the farm, on leave from Vietnam.

Nine giggling girls (five of them teenagers) and 3-4 service guys. I was too young of course, but my one sister and four of my cousins were older than me...so it was interesting to watch the male/female goings on....the sneaking out...

The rest of summer was spent back in Arizona, working at jobs (Jack in the Box, from the time I was 14, and doing chores, babysitting younger sisters, going swimming at the park pool, riding bikes, rollerskating, fixing dinner as both parents worked. No TV allowed without parents home of course, no telephone use unless parents home and ZERO other people allowed in house when parents not home. They kept us busy expecting ALL the housework and cooking to get done, though.

Work before play. Am still that way.30709656-1957-chevrolet-station-wagon-thumb.jpgUnknown-1.jpegWhen I was about 12-13 my parents got a new road trip car: a VISTA CRUISER!! It had cool windows to look at stars during night time travel.
 
CooCooforCoCoPuffs said:
From the time I was in first grade, when we moved from the Eastern Shore of Maryland to Arizona, every summer we would road trip to visit my mother's sister on her farm back in Maryland for 30 days.

Six of us in a 1957 turquoise station wagon just like this one. My parents would lay down the seats and throw a thick pad down, pillows and blankets for us kids; load up a big cooler with cheese and mustard or bologna sandwiches and a round cooler of water. We never stopped, my parents (mom and step dad) would take turns driving 55 HOURS straight, only pee/fuel stops. No hotels, no restaurants.

My Mom kept us busy by expecting us to learn all the states and the capitals, doing spelling assignments, reading so many pages of a book each day, and making list of car tags we saw.

It was the only time we girls would get to see our real father, who also lived near my aunt in Maryland. The best part was seeing and hanging out with our five girl cousins on the 80 acre farm; all NINE of us girls would sleep in three beds upstairs in an old SMALL farmhouse. When young we would pick "pickles" cucumbers and peppers for .25 a bushel and then later, as young teens we would help load hay and alfalfa onto flatbed trucks...pitching hay was much easier than pitching alfalfa, trust me.

Did the hay and such for about 5-6 yeqrs years - the best part was our young uncle who was in the Navy out of Norfolk, VA bringing his service buddies home with him to the farm, on leave from Vietnam.

Nine giggling girls (five of them teenagers) and 3-4 service guys. I was too young of course, but my one sister and four of my cousins were older than me...so it was interesting to watch the male/female goings on....the sneaking out...

The rest of summer was spent back in Arizona, working at jobs (Jack in the Box, from the time I was 14, and doing chores, babysitting younger sisters, going swimming at the park pool, riding bikes, rollerskating, fixing dinner as both parents worked. No TV allowed without parents home of course, no telephone use unless parents home and ZERO other people allowed in house when parents not home. They kept us busy expecting ALL the housework and cooking to get done, though.

Work before play. Am still that way.View attachment 400264View attachment 400269When I was about 12-13 my parents got a new road trip car: a VISTA CRUISER!! It had cool windows to look at stars during night time travel.
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Cool. I spent time in MD in my travels. I'll never forget the roadside crab stands.
 

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