How I Bought a Summer with My Graduation Money

“Buy graduation cards” has been on my to-do list for the past two weeks. Actually, everything involving real life has been on my to-do list. Yesterday  afternoon, I emailed the last of 7 freelance stories that were due—one a whopping 4300 words. I haven’t produced that much copy since my master’s thesis. But back to graduation. I wasn’t at all sentimental about my own—not at the time, anyway. I was ready to leave high school by my junior year. I wanted to get away, go to college, meet new people. And I was convinced that Auburn University would bring about a dramatic transformation in me. Sure, in high school I was an awkward, insecure bookworm with no idea how to flirt with boys or talk to boys or even comprehend boys. But in college, I would be different. (Yeah, right.) So I don’t believe I shed a single tear over that diploma. I didn’t have sense enough to know what, exactly, I was saying goodbye to.

Last night, as Dave and I went through invitations to the upcoming ceremony at my alma mater, he asked me if I remembered what I got for graduation. I smiled and said, “A summer.” Thanks to the generous cash donations of friends and family, I had racked up almost $400 by the time they played “Pomp and Circumstance.” FOUR HUNDRED DOLLARS???!!! I’M RICH! I CAN BUY ANYTHING I WANT! I’LL NEVER HAVE TO WORK! TARA IS SAVED! Mama and Daddy figured that I had worked hard in school, and they let me do whatever I wanted to with that money. I used it to buy an entire summer of financial independence.

There were five or six of us girls who were really close in high school, and the summer after graduation, all of us were in a state of magnificent, care-free limbo. Nobody had gone off to college yet. Nobody was married yet. None of us had a real job. Or a mortgage. Or a baby on the way. We spent many, many long summer days working on our tans at a place called—what else—General Lee Marina. Use of the marina’s air compressor was complimentary, so you could blow up your float for free. For a little under ten bucks, you could pay your swim fee and have plenty of money left over for a barbecue and fries from Fat Man’s and all the Mountain Dew you could drink. (Let us pause for a moment here while I reflect, with wistful affection, on a moment in my life when I was thin enough to devour pulled pork, fries, and sugary beverages while wearing a swimsuit. Sigh. Okay, let’s move on.) 

It goes without saying that “SPF” had not yet entered our vocabulary. We would cover ourselves with baby oil—might as well have been Crisco—and “lay out” all day on our floats or on one of General Lee’s conveniently located piers. The one argument we could count on involved the critical choice of who would make the run to Fat Man’s during that prime noontime sun and, therefore, miss out on the hottest rays. Somehow our friend Sheila always managed to escape the Fat Man’s run and maximize her sun time. I’m not sure how she pulled that off. By mid-summer, I was so dark that pantyhose were completely unnecessary—a life goal achieved.

There was a song on the radio that was really popular back then— “Sailing” by Christopher Cross. It was a laid-back, dreamy tune that kind of made you feel like you were on a sailboat. (Aside to readers under 40: we are speaking of a time before iPods, CDs, or any technology more sophisticated than a cassette tape. And those usually melted in your car or got all tangled up, so we listened to whatever the radio decided to play. I know. It was a primitive time.) I can remember lying in the sun with my best girlfriends, listening to the water lap against the pier, and then hearing that song come on the radio and thinking, “This is absolutely perfect.” It was. That carefree page on the calendar turns so quickly, doesn’t it? I wish every high school graduate who’s about to walk the aisle a moment of carefree bliss, a little oasis of long summer days spent with your very best friends—and an SPF of at least 15.

Comments

[Kacey]

"TARA IS SAVED!" I will most certainly be working that into my vocabulary when wonderful things happen. Loved this one. xo

[Valerie]

Thanks, sweetie pie! Hope all's well in your corner of the world! xoxo!