New Work: Nebraska Summer Writers' Conference Logo/T-Shirt

If you grew up in a certain time, in a certain part of the country, and of a certain economic status, few objects are as definitively summer as the classic nylon webbed lawn chair.

I don't know how rich kids spent their summer vacations, but I'll wager it wasn't at some public campground-cum-salvage-yard swatting mosquitos and waiting for one of these flimsy aluminum deathtraps to collapse and dump them into the firepit. Or getting large swaths of leg hair ripped out every time they say down or stood up or moved or sat still or... Seriously, the backs of my thighs are perfectly hairless thanks to a childhood of summers sitting on the pinch-tastic web seats of chairs like this. None of my female cousins will even go near one while wearing a bathing suit.