Hi. My name is Nancy Ann Cinanci and this is my essay, What my Family Couldn’t Afford To Do This Summer.

My family always used to go to some nice place in a wooded area for two weeks every summer. This place had swimming, horseback riding, lots of yummy food, and other stuff. My parents, who like to drink a lot, drank a whole lot there. They would party at night with other people who liked to party and drink a lot. But this summer we couldn’t go anywhere because we have been squeezed dry. This is what my father says. So this summer for our vacation we stayed home and pretended we were having fun. We set up the kiddie pool in the back yard for my two younger brothers, but they let our dog in who clawed it pretty bad and it collapsed. One day we did go to a park where they had rides and stuff, but that’s about it. I hope by next summer some water will get into whatever was squeezed dry  and we can go on a vacation again to some wooded place. Meanwhile my parents are still drinking and cursing, but they say the party is over.

The End 

I like it!

PDP - I also liked your essay.

Thanks for the cartoon Liza, also Phyllis and Joan.  All I got to do this summer was stay home and take my dog for a walk.  Every time I came home my mom had the door locked and hollowed out take him around the block again.

Dog and I sure got a workout and when she finally let us in we were real quiet so as not to throwed out again.

I was the geeky girl who sat in the front row; you knew me or were just like me.  I wouldn’t let you see my paper and I couldn’t wait for summer to end because I loved school.  Nyah, nyah.

Seriously, I couldn’t wait for school to start.  In the summer I would sneak out the window and meet my friends after dark.  That was high treason back in the day.  Night.  Whatever.  What do kids do now?  Go to websites?  Oops.  I’m a kid again.

Well, between ongoing dental work that cost the equivalent of a first-class voyage on the QEII around the world, and the general state of the economy, I took a "staycation". And it was pretty good, all things considered!

I read some wonderful books, sitting out on my little terrace, hearing the splashing of bullfrogs down at the little pond on out condo complex campus; I did some important chores in my apartment, and as a result, the place looks fresh and inviting after a thorough paint job and reorganization; I spent time doing needlepoint projects that were gathering dust, and remembering with elation how much I really love this activity; I did some writing; I started a little business as an Amazon seller; and best of all, I had time to reconnect with a lot of friends old and new. Had I taken a couple of weeks to go somewhere, it would definitely have been Brewster, Massa chusetts, up at the crook of the Cape Cod "elbow". That has been my destination of choice for many years, and I’ll get back there next summer, perhaps. But for this summer, the staycation worked perfectly.