Summer 2022 was probably the busiest time of my entire life, which is really funny because it wasn’t because of work or anything. I mean, technically I did have a job at McDonald’s, and the summer probably should have been significantly impacted by that, but the fuckers never scheduled me and thank god for that! I was broke but I was happy. There was something happening almost every day, to the point where I actually started keeping a calendar.
I recognized the uniqueness of my situation and wanted to take full advantage of it. It was going to be the last summer I was ever going to spend not working (at least until I retire, if I even can) so I had fun. I swear, all of these things involve parties in some way, and parties were definitely the motif of the summer. The post-grad season brough the grad parties, and the grad parties brought the after parties, and those were so fun. We developed a system for them, it was calculated and efficient. Instead of staying in someone’s house with their parents. We’d have our friend Matt bring this big ass 12 person tent, it was so big it had to be transported in a big plastic tub. Tanner and Matt, after the first three or so times, developed an efficient method of setting it up. The rest of us would blow up the hodge-podge of air mattresses, and eventually, we’d have our set up for the night.
There was one night—Julia’s grad party—where we did this. Everything was going to plan, when all of a sudden the sky opened up. It began to downpour, and we didn’t have a rain cover—why would we? It was mass panic. People began running into the tent to save their stuff and the air mattresses and quickly as possible. Luckily there was a barn nearby where we could dry our stuff off, as well as ourselves. And just as quickly as it began, the rain stopped.
The next few hours were spent slowly transporting our things across the street to Julia’s basement. Upstate New Yorkers have large properties. I remember stumbling in the dark as my girlfriend tried to guide me across the street with an air mattress on my head. It wasn’t easy (probably would have been in most other contexts) but we did it. We spent the night in the basement, and it became an iconic memory. Unfortunately that was the tent’s last ride. It never truly recovered, even after Matt tried drying it out. But who knows? Maybe the tent will make a comeback this summer?
Next Song Click me to go to the library
