Balancing act: Readers speak out on coaching, late hours, summertime

Finally, I received several comments about last week's column on memories of the joys of summer vacation. This time, many of them were posted on Facebook by friends who shared their own reflections on summers of their youth.

David posted a comment about growing up in Iowa and having experiences similar to mine, "including swimming in the ice cold municipal pool and playing backyard sports just for fun until all hours — our favorites were Wiffle Ball (with our tall backyard hedge as the home run fence), driveway basketball and neighborhood games of capture the flag and kick the can. Thanks for the trip down memory lane."

Another reader, Lori, echoed those sentiments.

"Oh man ... to be a kid again in the summertime! Hanging out at the pool all day, the smell of chlorine and Coppertone, listening to the lifeguard's boombox playing 'Jessie's Girl' and 'It's Still Rock & Roll To Me' about 100 times a day," she wrote. "Baseball games in the evening. Lots of cruising and using a bent plastic drinking straw to keep the cassette playing. Life was good!"

Finally, a teen posting a comment online had a slightly different take on the joys of summer vacation.

"Even though I still have summer break, what you describe kind of reminds me of how I feel about recess," this person wrote.

Recess. I hadn't thought about that. Don't get me started!

Email your comments to kratzbalancingact@gmail.com or post them online at deseretnews.com. Follow me on Twitter at gkratzbalancing or on Facebook on my journalist page.