Summer

Seattle, WA - Many years ago—like the early 80s—I saw Stand By Me, the movie directed by Rob Reiner, in the Uptown Theater in Seattle with my sisters and mom. Stephen King wrote the original story that someone adapted to the screen. Both were works of art. The main character of both story and film was summer.

Summer provided the background for the four boys to take that fateful trip that led to the discovery of the corpse. The corpse itself wasn’t even a big deal. The tight relationships between the four friends under-girded everything they experienced. It all had to happen in one summer in Maine. Stephen King captured the whole gestalt of summer: Warm weather, free time, a certain attitude, and the need for adventure.

The boys in the movie used language freely—there were many a “cocksucker” and “cunt” thrown about. My mom asked me during these parts if we were in the right movie. I only nodded. These were boys around 12 or so. They used language that was uninhibited—the kind of colorful talk used when authorities weren’t about. It was the language of summer.