Spring Breakin:’ The Best TV Episodes To Prime You For Warmer Weather

Image via Tumblr

“Summer Song” – The Wonder Years

Family vacations are always much more fun in theory than in execution. The Wonder Years does this so well – it takes all the fantasy and rose-colored nostalgia, and lays it bare to reveal the reality of what it usually was – awful. Time has a way of softening our memories, but shows like this bring it back into a much harsher focus.

In this episode, Kevin and his family take a vacation to revisit his parents’ honeymoon spot, but as often happens when you try to recapture magic, it disappoints. The entire family grouses and complains about every aspect of the vacation from the higher price of the hotel room, to leaving behind a new girlfriend. Everyone is miserable, and this is just about exactly right.

With a little distance, we often remember our family vacations with a lot more poignance than really occurred. The Arnold family get away is probably closer to how folks really vacation.

Watching this family clash, bicker, and then ultimately try to come together makes me want to scoop my family up, cram them into a stuffy car, and head to mid-Atlantic beach town. Looking back, everything I hated about those Spring Break trips are the exact things that make me remember them.