PICAYUNE — I have been blowing and going since school let out. Thousands of Northside parents know just what I mean.

With three active adolescent children, just scheduling the summer activities can be a huge chore. Then you have to meet the schedule.

Summer vacation may be a “break” for students and teachers, but for parents, it means double duty. I’m not complaining too much, though. As the song goes, these are the good old days. It’s a happy time.

June for the Emmerichs has always been busy, but Southern Qualifiers just about put me over the top.

My 12-year-old Lawrence is a tennis player. Every year, the top eight or so players in the state represent their age division in the Southern Qualifier tournament. Lawrence made it.

Good for him. I’m proud of him. The accomplishment represents a lot of hard work. Unfortunately, it means a week-long trek to Raleigh-Durham, N.C., where a hundred or so boys from 12 Southern states duke it out on the tennis court.

The Mississippi Tennis Association provided two pros to go with us and coordinate activities, advise players and arrange practice sessions. Emillia Viljoen found a great group rate at the Doubletree Inn, so all the players and parents were able to hang out together. It was a great bonding experience.

I am a tennis parent, but the drill is the same as a soccer, baseball, swim or any other sports parent. Lots of waiting around in the searing hot sun.

And hot it was. Several days hit 100 degrees. The Carey Tennis Center was huge and splendid in every regard except one - no shade anywhere.

It’s rough enough watching your own child play tennis for hours, but since we were Team Mississippi, parents felt obligated to go watch and root for the other Mississippi kids as well. We’re talking days on end of sitting in 100-degree weather all day long watching kids play tennis. By sunset the parents were giddy.

After refreshments at the Doubletree we would head out en masse for whatever restaurant could accommodate our huge group. We had a blast.

The Doubletree had a beautiful pond with paddle boats. The boys would come back from hours on the courts and head to the pond. “No swimming” signs were posted, but somehow the boys failed to notice.

This gave the hotel manager fits and he approached Jeff Laseter and me to express his displeasure.

It was a great moment. After politely listening, I turned to Jeff and said, “Can you believe this? Our 12-year-old Mississippi boys are swimming in a pond in the 100-degree weather. That’s outrageous.”

Jeff didn’t miss a beat. “I’m shocked. I’m really shocked. We’re going to have to talk to those boys.”

The swimming hole cat-and-mouse game between the boys and the uptight hotel manager continued throughout our stay. No doubt, he let out a big sigh of relief when we departed. You had to be there.

Unfortunately, the Mississippi boys were better at sneaking swims than beating the North Carolina boys, who dominated the tournament. Wait till next year.

No sooner did I return from this exhausting trip than I headed out to the Mississippi Press Association annual convention, where I was president for the year. And the very day the convention was over, we headed to South Walton beaches for our beach vacation.

Over the years, we have gravitated to the beaches east of Destin and west of Panama City. Some people describe this as Santa Rosa Beach. Others call it South Walton County. Locals call the area 30A in reference to a main highway.

Years ago, we started at the Seaside resort and then migrated to Rosemary Beach. This time we stayed at Seacrest, a newer development just west of Rosemary.

On our last trip, while bicycling, we discovered Seacrest and had a hunch the newer resort would be less expensive. I’ll say. Our rental was about a third the cost of Rosemary and just as nice. We’ll be back.

We shared a house with some long lost friends we originally met in Jackson when Ginny and I were first becoming parents. Our children were best friends when they were little, but had not seen much of each other since.

It was amazing how all the children just picked right back up. Everybody got along and we had a blast deep sea fishing, parasailing, biking, crab hunting, body surfing and all the great, relaxing stuff you do at the beach.

We returned from the beach just in time to make Wilson Carroll’s annual Fourth of July barbecue at Seldom Seen in Carroll County. Then we got back from that just in time to get wife Ginny on a plane to Italy for 11 days with her college roommate whose daughter is staying in Florence for the summer. Ginny big-time deserved a break and this was an early birthday gift from me.

So after three weeks of being on the road, I get to work my day job and manage three adolescent children for 11 days. My mother had the good sense to go on vacation simultaneously. Thank goodness for mother-in-law Dottie.

When I think back on my days of youth, I am staggered at the time and freedom I once had. Too bad I couldn’t appreciate it.

That world is so far away. It’s non-stop, pedal to the metal.  I like to complain, but I know these really are the good old days.