Advice for any age: “Be young, be foolish, but be happy” in Daydreaming on the Porch

It’s only April 20, but it feels like an early summer day when those sweet memories of sun and fun at the beach come back to me from more carefree times. Back in the 1960s, we never thought that summers of unimaginable heat would await us in a few decades because rhe planet is quickly warming.

So I am going to travel back to the summer of 1968. The Tams came out with what is now a classic song of the beach/Southern shag music genre, “Be Young, Be Foolish, but Be Happy.” I love that song, not only because of its sheer simplicity and joyful melody, but also because of the associations. They are rich, indeed, and take me back to my summer vacations at Folly Beach those many decades ago now.

My aunt had just bought a beach house for us all to enjoy that summer — and for many more to come — the summer before I was to start my senior year in high school. I was 17, and then, as now, I loved that special place on the Atlantic Ocean as no place on Earth. It has become a place so woven into the fabric of all our family’s lives, that even today, 57 years later, whenever I walk the same stretch of beach we spent so much time on in years past, and when the warm summer sea breezes on a hot June or July day caress my face, I always think back to the carefree, good times of youth, as only memories of the beach can call forth.

In those days, we got tans because it was the thing to do at the beach. We didn’t know much better. We put on our Coppertone No. 4 “suntan lotion” (not sunscreen) and just relaxed under a hot sun. We then jumped into the waves to cool off after an hour or so.

Later, I’d head back to the house for lunch — maybe boiled shrimp or a tomato and cheddar cheese sandwich with an ice cold Fresca.

When you are a teenager at the beach during summer vacation, time literally stands still. School is a distant memory. There are no thoughts of the chores and responsibilities that await us at home. To the surfers, it’s “endless summer.” For me it was enough to swim out a ways and luxuriate in diving down a few feet where the water was deliciously cool and inviting. Then it was time to catch a wave and body surf to shore. Those were some of the happiest days of my life, and it was painful to load up the car and leave the beach until next summer.

Ah, those were the days!

The photo is me in the summer of 1968, proud of my tan, and still very much the serious teenager I always was, despite the carefree setting.

https://flic.kr/p/2pL37ec

“Be Young, Be Foolish, But Be Happy” The Tams

Last updated April 20, 2024