An Arresting Vacation

Summers in Southeast Texas are brutal. One hundred degree weather coupled with one hundred percent humidity and daily thunderstorms, makes natives tough and a little odd. We think nothing of the person who sits on a large block of ice in a kiddie pool under the shade of a huge pine tree. Everyone else in the country would not consider staying outside for any length of time. My family, however, is made of sterner stuff.

Growing up in a family of seven (yes, count 'em seven) kids, my brother and I escaped with my cousin to my Aunt Erna's un-airconditioned house during the first week of July. We'd stay up all night disguising eggs as dirt piles in the street. In one misguided science experiment, we tied a bologna sandwich to three balloons to chart wind direction. We went to Mass shoeless --not because we didn't bring any shoes but because we collided in a go-cart pileup that melted our shoes.

Lastly and probably most amazing was the fact that we were never arrested. And this was not for lack of trying. We shot off bottle rockets at the beach, causing a huge brush fire. We threw watermelon seeds out the back of the truck on the interstate and into unsuspecting convertibles.

Now I have the money to visit more exotic locations but I would give anything to step back in time to visit Aunt Erna and this time, make more of an effort to get arrested.