Every July when I was a child， my parents would pack their bags and go on vacation. My sister and I were left home with our grandparents. We played dodge ball and drank bug juice in the grungy day-camp nearby， and spent the rest of our time drawing with chalk on the driveway and vegetating in front of the TV. It was adults， not children， who had the exciting lives then--and no one questioned our parents' right to fly off for a month to France or Italy，， Bermuda， Mexico， or Guadeloupe.We enjoyed staying with our grandparents， who allowed us to eat cookies for breakfast and stay up to watch The Tonight Show， but what we liked most was the expectation of our parents' return. It wasn't that we missed them--such a thing never occurred to us--but we looked forward to the souvenirs they Would bring back from their travels.