To read the first part of this article, The Super Summers of 7th Grade 2014 vs. 1984–Part 1, click here.

This past June, I was fortunate to put a pool in our backyard and also a new hoop in our expanded driveway.  My hope was to provide a nice hangout for my kids and their friends.  Drew and his posse usually have the routine of playing hoops, swimming, and X-box.  I can’t forget to include the constant checking of the cell phone/i-pod for texts, posts, instagrams, vines,…  The Drew Crew also mixes in games like keep-away tag, rundown, wiffle ball, and ping-pong.

My summer days had their similarities.  It usually started with calling my core group to play some tennis ball.  It was basically 4-on-4 baseball, but played with a tennis ball to cut down the size of the field.  We would incorporate terms like ‘pitcher’s hand’, ‘ghost runners’, and ‘crossies at home’. Our usual posse cosisted of me (a.k.a. ‘Satchel’), Mark (‘Yid’) , Bobby (or as my dad would call him, ‘Bubba’), Eric (‘E’), Dan, and Robert.  My little bro Jon and his pal Steve (or ‘Stosh’, another one of my dad’s nicknames he recycled from childhood days growing up near Cleveland) would usually come along.  On good days, other guys would join in to get a bigger game going..  I would wear my Cleveland Indians batting helmet…

and do my best Andre ‘Thunder’ Thornton imitation trying to hit homers.

Our games were always at Broad Street Park.  Ironically, it was later re-named…

in honor of my dad’s service to the Louisville community, which you can read about in in this blog.

After a couple of hours, we headed to my house for some swimming and hoops.  We had no X-box/Atari/Nintendo at that time, so our technology fix was limited to watching the awesome 1984 Olympics on TV and hoping for American medals so we could win food from from McDonald’s with our Olympic pull-off tickets.

The Soviet boycott must have cost the Golden Arches some serious dough in giveaways!  We would also sprinkle in games like driveway tennis, rundown, and apple tag (basically throw apples at each other).

I was lucky enough to have parents who created a safe and fun home environment for my friends and me.  That’s one of many things that I have tried to emulate from my parents.  One great idea my dad did to keep us active is one that I don’t  have the room for in my yard…

‘Aljansga National Golf Course’ (our name twist of Augusta National GC where the Masters is played) got a lot of play in those summers.  We had 18 different tee-offs from all over our yard as well as the neighbors.  And I am relieved to report that no kids or windows were ever harmed (well, maybe just a little).

One last commonality of the 7th grade summers is the night life.  No, neither Drew or I are involved in break-dance challenges in the back alleys.  I am talking about sleepovers.  Drew is a true addict.  I don’t think that we have had an evening go by this summer where Drew hasn’t asked to have someone(s) over or go to someone’s house.  Once in a while, this mean author has to put his foot down and say NO to the ‘joyboy’ life and YES to some normalcy.  Drew always handles my vetoes with that teenage dignity common to every household.  Sleepovers pretty much consist of staying up late night swimming, playing X-Box and also doing the phone thing.  Phones now of course have cameras, so creating videos of some crazy stunts is a periodic option.

I did my share of sleepovers as well, most often with my buddy Yid.  TV-wise, we loved to watch late-night re-runs of the Twilight Zone, except for Friday nights, which meant watching… 

Big Chuck and Lil’ John show (definitely a great blog topic for another day).

Suprisingly, creating videos was a 1984 thing as well.  Yid’s dad had a camera, and we put it to good use.  I still remember creating our own horror movie—I believe the title was They Never Returned.  Rumor has it that this flick surfaced in some Ohio State dorm rooms and became a Columbus cult classic back in the early 90s. My biggest contribution was bringing my dad’s outdoor spotlights.  I was such a bad actor that not only was I killed off in the first scene, but the ‘killer’ had to put a magazine over my face to cover up my laughing!

So, Drew, remember to savor your 7th grade summer.  This is a moment in your life that you will cherish for a lifetime.  And if your Dad ever falls into one of his grumpy old fuddle dud adult moods, remind him that he was once a 7th grader like this…

And tell him to…

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You can also e-mail him:  macaljancic@yahoo.com