And The Livin's Easy
I've been thinking about memories of Summers Past. The earliest one is of sitting in my father's lap on our back porch,in my long night gown, watching neighborhood fireworks. I remember Bill the Ice Cream Man ringing the truck's bells as he drove past our house... five shakes of the bells got us running. I remember the glass louvered front storm door, and the industrial-sized fan my parents put in my bedroom window that stayed on all night until someone woke up at 6 am to turn it off. The silence woke me, too. And I remember getting a piggyback from teenage camp counselors who seemed SO OLD!!
In the summer, my friend Moo (yep. Moo. It works well to protect her true identity) and I could set up an old green tent in the back yard and camp out...and make ridiculous taped commentary about it: "We're alone, in a tent, in the backyard..." Why, I do not know; in case of trouble, perhaps the "little green man in the tape recorder will come out and say, 'I am here! What do you need?'"... and we'd worry about the heat lightening ("but what about cloud to ground?")
And, ummm, Moo, I still have those tapes, and I'm still too embarrassed to listen to them.
(Moo's birthday is 5 days before mine in July. But I was one year older! So for those days, we were the same age AND IT KILLED ME because I just wanted to be older than someone all the time (I'm the youngest of four).
By the way, my son's birthday is 3 days before her son's, so they will be the same age just for those days. Except this time, my boy is the younger one.)
Anyhoo, the point of this post is Summer Memories (not some multi-generational scheme of retaliation). What are your earliest and best summer memories?
In the summer, my friend Moo (yep. Moo. It works well to protect her true identity) and I could set up an old green tent in the back yard and camp out...and make ridiculous taped commentary about it: "We're alone, in a tent, in the backyard..." Why, I do not know; in case of trouble, perhaps the "little green man in the tape recorder will come out and say, 'I am here! What do you need?'"... and we'd worry about the heat lightening ("but what about cloud to ground?")
And, ummm, Moo, I still have those tapes, and I'm still too embarrassed to listen to them.
(Moo's birthday is 5 days before mine in July. But I was one year older! So for those days, we were the same age AND IT KILLED ME because I just wanted to be older than someone all the time (I'm the youngest of four).
By the way, my son's birthday is 3 days before her son's, so they will be the same age just for those days. Except this time, my boy is the younger one.)
Anyhoo, the point of this post is Summer Memories (not some multi-generational scheme of retaliation). What are your earliest and best summer memories?
posted by cakeboom at
12:23 PM
21 Comments:
What happy memories! These are lovely.
I didn't even know what a storm door WAS until last summer...Man. I'm a dork.
Playing in the Secret Camp (woods behind our house) and also eating beefsteak tomatoes right off the vine. My mom would bring the salt shaker outside and we would all get a great big fat juicy tomato and eat them like apples.
The sound of my dad using the scythe on the 5 foot tall weeds around our house. Seeing the top of his head when I stood on tippy-toe and peered through the dining room window.
Picking blackberries. Hunting for white rocks.
That tin-ny trebly sound of FM radio on the sunniest summer days, made softer and then louder and then softer by the shifting breeze.
Hanging on the ropeswing, gripping the knot with my legs. Singing Blinded By The Light at a barbecue with distant cousins. Blowing bubbles with that weird marbled plastic stuff that came in a tube and smelled like molten poison.
Thanks for the memories. I mean it. :)
You mean Super Elastic Bubble Plastic!! I loved that stuff! A bit of organic volatiles, maybe, but cool bubbles!
I had a Mickey Mouse AM radio, and I remember Manfred Mann's Blinded By the Light, and Dancing Queen playing... tinny sound.
Thank you, La Pix!
And Plum, it wasn't until I owned a house 5 years ago that I became door-savvy. Dorks are welcomed here!
Summer memories...(these aren't the earliest, but they're the best) hanging out at the neighborhood pool crushing on the older boy lifeguards, scraping my toes on the pavement when I rode my bike barefoot, lying on the driveway with my neighborhood friends looking at stars eating m&m Blizzards, sneaking out of my window to meet my boyfriend, sleeping in, playing Ghosts in the Graveyard.
SUPER ELASTIC BUBBLE PLASTIC!
Colleen, you ROCK so HARD for remembering that! lol
summer to me is a rusted screen door, the sound of it creaking open and slamming shut as we made countless trips in and outside. we'd traipse the graveled alleyways between our houses, running down the back alley to mike's grocery for beef jerky and root beer. mike's grocery was this tiny, dirty little convenience store with a grill in the back and poor air conditioning. fans would circle back and forth in the windows, dispelling the smoky, grease-clogged air. we'd always pause by the screen door at mike's and get a blast of cool fan air before we headed back into the texas heat. at night, if i was lucky, my mom would let my best friend stay over and we would stay up in my room, listening to my little red boom box and giggling about the boy up the street. the windows would be wide open and the cooling air would cause moisture to bead on the window screen - sending that rusty smell straight inside.
and after that, summer is trips to lake texoma, sand and bologna sandwiches, sand castles made from styrofoam cups, writing our names with sticks in the sand, floating down in the deep end, ignoring my mother's shouts to stay closer to shore, and game after game of marco polo.
ack! i hijacked your comments! blame la pix, she sent me over. this was fun - and it made me decide that i'm going to have to take a week off of work sometime before summer is over and do all of those things that made summer so much fun. i'll just have to find a friend who will do it with me.
hijackers also welcome! i wonder if that rusty window smell is the same one i know after it rains. thanks, amber lyn. your comment is a joy to read. i'm so glad you've decided to take back summer vacation.
misfit, i snuck out my window, too! and i loved dairy queen soft-serve vanilla ice cream with the butterscotch topping that hardens as it cools.
I am the Babbr Cauuw
summer........when the daylilies still bloomed in august, not mid june! the smell of honesuckle, and "snapping" the buds of hostas to hear them pop! more comments after i reach further back in my memory.......
Not a lot of time for story-telling right now. Just wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed your post.
Hugs,
Me
Ahhh, I love this post. It is so peaceful and nice. Thankyou!
i love this.
I also loved super elastic bubble plastic. and those long tubes of horrible colored water that you froze and would eat like popsicles.
i have lots of summer memories, but the weirdest and most fun was me and my sister washing our hair outside in our bathing suits at our grandmother's house while standing on an old discarded garage door. it'd get all slippery and we'd slide all over it. we always talk about how ridiculous we were. i just found out my mom is a little horrified we did that. it was so fun, tho.
and camp. lots of very sweaty, earthy, not fancy, cool as hell camp. that's an early morning smell that always takes me whirling back to the woods in Athens, GA. i loved it!
-carol
ooooo, the babbr cauuw!
and, anonymous #2/UB: I remember you laying out on that green plastic lounge chair (with baby oil?), and the Duster!
Ladybug and Amanda B., just glad you're still here reading.
Carol, garage doors and shampoo was probably a lot better than waiting in line at Six Flags!
Skipping out the back door to swing on the swingset, climb my tree (yes it was MINE, nobody else ever wanted to climb it), pick violets for my mom.
Collecting cicada shells and plotting to put one on my sister's dinner plate that night, just to hear her scream.
Going down to the East End for ice cream (three scoops are still less than a buck, I think. Best deal in town).
Our two-week vacation in our rental cabin by the lake, swinging out over the lake on the rope swing and dropping in the water, laying out on the dock at night to look for shooting stars.
Great post, Colleen! I loved the chance to remember those things. Makes me wonder what my kids will remember about summer when they are grown up.
me, too, Andrea! I try to use everything in the artillery: looking for lightening bugs, evening walks, playgrounds, ice pops, water guns...
I forgot about the cicadas! Thanks for reminding me.
Ewwwwww.
well I could do an entire post on summer memories! Good idea! ;)
We had a wooden screen door that slammed and there is no other sound quite like it. Everytime our current ALUMINUM door slams I cringe and wish for that nice wooden clap.
Colleen, I did a post on summer memories too and I gave you credit and a link for giving me the idea. Hope you don't mind! =)
You guys already hit a lot of the good stuff. Freeze-Pops, we called them, or Pop-Ice. Catching lightening bugs, eating watermelon on the back porch, making cassette tapes of the radio top 40, to play while we sun-bathed with *baby oil and iodine*!!! God help us, call the dermatologist! Vacation Bible School crafts, like carving Jonah's whale out of Ivory soap. I'll bet I could still do that. Thanks, Colleen :)
I just wanted to thank you for sharing that with us...awesome.
Otter Pops..."Little Orphan Orange" is my favorite.
Summer? The not too distant sounds just three houses apart........eeeeeeeeeee-rrrr-eeeeet, eeeeee-rrrr-eeeeeeet.
Red-head, I love the idea of a little red-headed girl eating contraband tomatoes! Weetzie, your blog posting rocked, and I am so glad you enjoyed the idea, and I am flattered you were inspired!!
Kristine, I loved orange. And purple. Why were they called Otter Pops?
eeeeeeerrrrrreeeeet!!!
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