Monday

The next two weeks went quickly by as if a blink of an eye. School projects were due, year-end finals for every subject, the last day of school. Saying goodbye to friends for the summer and sort of glad to have more free time in the swamp.

Church summer activities were starting.  There was an end of the year school party at the Largo Lanes bowling alley and then a week helping with Vacation Bible School every morning. That left the afternoon for chores which had a longer list everyday than during school time. No time for the swamp boy to explore.

Also, a lot of time was spent learning the paper route business from my brother. He would be headed off to college by the end of the summer and I would inherit the paper route from him.

I was not asked or made part of the decision to do so, just informed it would happen. For me, it would be another chore that must be done daily, and the reward was small. A paper route wouldn’t have been something I would have chosen to do. It would be something I had to do every day no matter what else I wanted to do. But, it looked like I didn’t have a choice.