Lost Summer

It was the summer before my sophmore year in high school, 1988. The kids that I hung out with were from my town and I didn't even go to school with any of them. We played sports together and enjoyed growing up not far from the ocean. In the summer there was plenty of fishing, swimming, and just hanging out at the beach. I was 14, young for the kids in my grade, but in my group of friends I was the oldest. Yes, I was a little different. My family was extended and close knit at the time. Both sides of my family had lived in this town for over thirty years and within 4 most of us would move away. I lived next door to my grandparents and we had sunday dinners like it was the 50's in some Eurpoean country. My parents taught me to be humble and often told me not to compare myself to others, lessons I still try to live by.One of my friends, Kevin Baker, was going on a late July camping trip and asked me to tag along. He wasn't my best friend. In fact, I think the only reason I liked hanging out with him so much was that I had a crush on his older sister. Anyway, that trip would change my future so quickly and there was no way I saw it coming. I guess I thought that when I looked back on those friendships later in life, I would look back remembering how special they were. Not because I liked any of those kids so much, but because that's how it was in the movies. Remember the end of "Stand by Me," when the narrator proclaims, "I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anybody?” I guess like every kid who grew up watching that movie, I just expected that would happen.Well the camping trip was filled with excitement. I caught the biggest fish on a charter boat, winning the pool -- a sum of $100. Kevin and I rode waves, while his mom watched from the beach. I think we were alone most of the time. And most of that time this kid was cracking jokes about my mother and it wore on me, it was torture. I complained to Ms. Baker, who didn't really give a crap because she was too busy having fun with her boyfriend. So I decided to take matters into my own hands and I treated the kid like shit. Sure I flashed the $100 in his face. Sure I told him the fish I caught was probably about as big as he was (which was not that far from the truth). And when he asked to try my new boogey board, I said hell no. What I didn't do was make jokes about his mom. I actually felt sorry for her. She was a single mom raising two kids and here I was with family coming out of my ass. The trip ended and I was glad to be back at home and wanted to just put everything behind me.Over the next week, the strangest thing happened. Suddenly, all of my friends were no where to be found. I lived on the other side of town, not the better one, it was just the other side. So, I would call and they wouldn't be there. I would wait for calls and none would come. I really only cared about one of those friends, he was defintely my best friend at the time. We grew up swimming together, learning how to compete, and pushing each other further and further. The competition never got in the way of being friends. Swimming allowed that, because it was a very individual sport. You were racing other kids, but at the end of the race you didn't look to see who you beat, you just looked to see if your time was faster than the last time you had swam. Well, he was no where to be found. And then I would see him at the pool and he would ignore me. I was devastated. My mom ended up calling some of the mothers and they expalined to her that after the camping trip Ms. Baker had called each of them saying how distraught her son was at what I had done to him. She said that I was arrogant and extremely selfish and that none of the other boys should be around me. What!? I don't know what's more troubling the fact that someone would tell all of these people that or that the other mothers actually enforced her request. After all, wasn't I the one who was taking lumps the whole trip? So I blew up, was it fair that now I was sent off with no friends? At first, I took what was going on as the truth. Maybe I had gone too far. Maybe I was too arrogant. I spent the rest of that summer on the couch watching "The Many Loves of Dobbie Gillis." When that summer ended, I realized I needed to make some friends. I didn't care about any nostalgic ideals, I just wanted to meet some kids that accepted me for who I was.