Two Summers - One Lesson

If you're lucky some of the important life lessons can be learned early. I didn't realize it at the time but this lesson I learned in elementary school stuck with me for the rest of my life.

A few days before the end of the 3rd grade, Mrs. McWhinnie (loved that name!) announced that the school and the local libraries were sponsoring a summer reading contest. Whoever read the most books before the start of the next school year would win a wonderful prize. All of the libraries would have contest entry forms and the librarian would record how many books you checked out over the summer.

This announcement came just a month after bikes were awarded to the winners of the fund raising contest that I had only half heartedly participated in. I quickly deduced that if bikes were awarded for 3 weeks worth of selling magazines and wrapping paper...then the prize for 3 months of reading during your summer break...must be like 10 times better than a bike! ( I was a reader, not a mathematician)

I was going to go for it. I liked to read anyway and I knew that my only serious competition was Julie Beudreau. Julie read during recess which clearly was a sign of a compulsive disorder. She might be a problem.

That summer I read. I read in bed, I read in the bathroom, I read in the car, I read at the barbers, I read at dinner, I read at the rodeo, I read while camping, I just read. Occasionally my friends would peal me away for a bike ride but I couldn't enjoy it because I just KNEW Julie was reading. I pictured that compulsive little suck up setting her alarm for 4am so she could get to more books. I couldn't let up if I was going to beat her.

It did occur to me to cheat but imagined that with such a fabulous prize at stake there was probably going to be some sort of test on the books...maybe even fingerprinting of the pages...so I read every word.

By summer's end I had logged 48 books with the librarian and was certain that I had fallen at least a dozen books short. On the first day of 4th Grade the principal came into our classroom to personally award the Summer Reading Prize.

I looked at Julie and tried to imitate her apparent non-chalance. If she was going to pretend not to care - so was I.

"Good morning class. I'm so proud...blah, blah, blah...everyone's a winner...blah, blah blah...and the winner for the whole school comes from this very class room."

My heart was beating in my head.

"With an amazing 48 books read, the prize goes to Jimmy Crocker. Jimmy, could you come up here please?"

I walked (maybe I swaggered) to the front of the class and received my 1st place certificate and my...

...Bookmark. That's it. A bookmark.

A certificate, a bookmark, my name displayed in the school trophy case for the entire school year, teasing for being a bookworm, and accusations of cheating (because no one is stupid enough to spend their summer actually reading 48 books). The only person who seemed actually impressed with my acheivement was - Julie Beudreau (19 books). While she congratulated me and we discussed the books we had read, I noticed that besides reading, she'd spent the summer getting kinda hot. I decided it wouldn't be such a sacrifice to give up a little recess tetherball for the occasional book discussion with Julie.

By the end of 4th grade, I was just Jim...no more Jimmy. The summer reading contest was announced again but I was having none of it. I'd climbed that ladder and I knew what was at the top.

That summer (maybe the funnest 3 months of my life) was spent riding bikes and horses. We fished until it got hot, then we threw down our poles and the fishing hole turned into a swimming hole. We had a 30 foot rope tied to a cottonwood and we timed ourselves to the top everyday. I danced at the reservation Pow Wow and went on a cattle drive at my friends ranch. I stacked hay on the farm and learned to water ski. I slept in a tent nearly as often as I slept in my bed. And to completely destroy my book worm rep I even got arrested. (but that's another story) I can't remember for sure but I must have read a couple of books because I still needed something to talk to Julie about in the fall.

I don't think there was a conscious realization that I'd learned a life lesson that summer but I'm sure it's something I must have internalized on some level. I'd discovered that the "fabulous prize" wasn't something I had to work for or something that could be awarded by someone else. The prize was being able to live on the Wind River in Wyoming and seeing the mountains from my bedroom window. It was having good friends and a healthy body and to have the freedom to enjoy both. It was having great parents and a brother who was my best friend.

And I was given that prize every single morning.

Ever since then I've been careful. I don't want to spend years climbing a ladder just to discover it's been leaning against the wrong wall. Why wait for a vague promise that there is a land of milk and honey in your future. Look around. You are surrounded by milk and honey already.

Just taste it.