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co_heir · 04-13-2012, 11:11 AM

Play city league baseball, swim at the city pool, ride my bike all over the place, travel with my family to Asheville, NC. From there, we'd travel to the Outer Banks, or places in the Smokies.

elfdream · 04-13-2012, 12:50 PM

My family came from the Asheville/Cherokee Smokey Mountains are and had strong family ties to the place. We moved to VA when I was two but every summer we went back.

Now the Smokies themselves are very beautiful and there are interesting things to do and see there but did we go see them? No. We went and visited relatives the entire time we were there. I understand my family wanted to do that but I hardly knew those people. I wanted to go do something...else.

I didn't get to see the Biltmore House until I was an adult. Same with the Cherokee museum and the Indian Village and I'm a frapping Indian myself. I have since gone back with husband and children and acted like a tourist and did all the 'fun' things I missed out on as a kid.

notdrinkingthekoolaid · 04-13-2012, 01:47 PM

My summers were pretty typical to everyone else's it seems. A week each of: VBS (Neighborhood Bible Time anyone?), GARBC church camp and my grandma's cottage on Gull Lake, Michigan. (It smelled like stale moth balls when we first opened the door, but we always got sugar cereal when we went there. The cereal alone was a highlight!)

Otherwise I would play with my toys--mostly alone. I spent a lot of time holed up at the library--they had AC and we didn't. Fourth of July we would watch our neighbor's party and resulting slightly tipsy fireworks after it got dark. Good times!

**Perry** · 04-15-2012, 12:14 PM

As a child my summer vacations were enjoyable. We had an old Airstream RV and we would all go on trips all the time. We went to Gatlinburg, TN, at least once a summer. We went to Lake Lure, NC all the time for weekend trips, and we would also drive up in the Blue Ridge Parkway not far from our home for family picnics. One summer we went to the Outer Banks and pretty much traveled all over the NC coast. We have family that lives near Wilmington and we spent several days there. Back then we were all still kids and my stepmother was actually nice sometimes. When we were at home we had a house with lots of woods and a swimming pool so we always had something to do.

As we got older and the economy started to get worse, we stopped going on trips. Dad started having to work all the time and his wife started to get really mean. Our family has grown apart a lot, and I don't hardly know my dad anymore. I miss the summers we all used to spend together.

**boymom** · 04-15-2012, 12:29 PM

We didn't do VBS, we were VBS. And we always went to family camp. One summer we did a driving tour of the Western states and Rockies. We 4 kids stood at the 4 corners. We had 1 tape to listen to: Psalty the Singing Songbook. How convenient that we were putting that on at church when we got back. I do wish we could have taken our kids on more vacations. Washington D.C. would be nice.

notdrinkingthekoolaid · 04-15-2012, 09:23 PM

I remember Psalty! He was my first introduction to that slippery slope of praise and worship music! Big Grin

co_heir · 04-17-2012, 11:44 AM

(04-13-2012 12:50 PM)elfdream Wrote: My family came from the Asheville/Cherokee Smokey Mountains are and had strong family ties to the place. We moved to VA when I was two but every summer we went back.

Now the Smokies themselves are very beautiful and there are interesting things to do and see there but did we go see them? No. We went and visited relatives the entire time we were there. I understand my family wanted to do that but I hardly knew those people. I wanted to go do something...else.

I didn't get to see the Biltmore House until I was an adult. Same with the Cherokee museum and the Indian Village and I'm a frapping Indian myself. I have since gone back with husband and children and acted like a tourist and did all the 'fun' things I missed out on as a kid.

We went to Cherokee a couple of times, saw Biltmore once, went to Ghost Town and Tweetsie Railroad, and a few other places in the area. We did stay with relatives a good bit of the time too.

co_heir · 04-17-2012, 11:49 AM

(04-15-2012 12:14 PM)Perry Wrote: One summer we went to the Outer Banks

I loved the Outer Banks. One year we camped at Oregon Inlet and a storm came through in the middle of the night and blew our tent down. We spent the rest of the night in the back of our station wagon, being rocke dback and forth by the wind. The next morning the water was 3 ft. deep up to the dunes.

**exOBCstudent** · 04-17-2012, 03:12 PM

We did "SMITE Camp" every summer then VBS "Blitz" the rest of the summer my entire teen years. Dodgy

It stands for Summer Missionary Institute of Training and Evangelism. Basically they "smite" you with harsh, hate-filled preaching all day and night with bible clubs in the hottest part of the day. Each team does 3 all afternoon.

There were NO fun, games, or enjoyment....only preaching and work.

The summer "Blitz Teams" were no different except we traveled from church to church building their bus routes with the VBS and Bible Clubs.

Those folks put the "fundy" in fundamentalism...some of the most extreme of the whole bunch. Dodgy

Our family put all we had into SMITE so we rarely had a nice vacation that we could've afforded otherwise.

**pastor's wife** · 04-17-2012, 03:43 PM

We had quiet, family-focused summers: our church was small and our parents very sheltering so most of our time was spent in the back yard playing. We had trees to climb and woods behind our house to explore. We also rode our bikes to the bottom of the hill to the river and yelled under the bridge to see the pigeons fly out! I read lots and lots.

We did do family vacations, driving to visit the relatives but also going to different parts of the country. One summer when I was in 9th grade, we drove from New England to California and back. It was a wonderful trip!