Childhood Memories of Summer

[shoiji]

Well, I have been roasting marshmallows. Haven't done it in years and have been really jonesing for some. First I tried using unscented tea lights. Actually works but take a while. Then today I used my electric burner set on high. Worked pretty quickly and was able to get the marshmallow brown instead of burnt. I am in an apartment and barbeque grills are frowned upon. Yup I know the burner method is definately not frugal.

Biting into the marshmallow really brought back a floodgate of summer time memories.

The kids in the neighborhood would spend hours playing outside. It was amazing how many things there was for us to to.

So what are you summer time memories as a child?

[Debbie-cat]

We would spend the summers at my aunties farm. Collecting eggs, bailing hay, milking cows and swimming in the muddy creeks are my favorite memories. How I wish I could go back.

[jvera]

I remember chasing fire flys and trying to capture them and then release them.

[shoiji]

Saw my first firefly in a long time yesterday. Had flown into the house.

[Nishu]

I remember chasing fire flys and trying to capture them and then release them.

We used to pick off their butts and put them our our fingers and call them rings. That was slightly more successful than trying to write with them by smearing their rear ends on the ground.

[just-me-in-tn]

Up to the age of 9, we spent summers at the Gulf Coast because my grandparents owned a hotel down there. They sold it right before Hurricane Frederic hit. After that, it was summers spent at their new place, which included a good sized garden, lake, goats, chickens, and a horse. My daughter doesn't spend that much time with her grandparent's and it's really a shame. That is a bond that is like no other.

Specifics - having all the cousins stay at my grandparents house for a full week. We were all within 3 years of each other. Picking black berries, telling ghost stories, giggling all night long, playing with the goats/chickens, sneaking off to the lake, catching fire flies, riding on the tractor, picking veggies in the garden, catching giant grasshoppers, playing until dark, playing in the ocean and sand, sitting on the roof of the hotel and watching the dolphins play. I have the best memories of them and of summer.

[Ramona]

Summer Memories:

Summer lasted forever.

Warm days, cool nights, picking blueberries, day camp, bike riding, a rented cabin at the beach, relatives galore, the concord grape arbor at nana's summer home, drive in movies, double dutch, Barbies and a special outfit for the first day of school.

[HandyMom]

One summer I found a big cardboard box, laid it on a side, cut windows in the side walls and set it on the grass of our front lawn. I climbed in, closed it up, laid down and almost fell asleep because it was so nice and quiet and peaceful. My other favorite thing to do was take a blt sandwich (my very favorite) and have my lunch sitting on the ground under the tree. Seemed like everyone was away on vacation so it was often a lonely time for me.

[pollypurebred39]

~Horseback riding
~Honeysuckle wafting through an open window the night I spent over my Uncles
~a salt shaker in hand, standing in the middle of the garden munching on a perfectly ripe tomato
~Bathing our collie in a wading pool in the back yard
~Brushing his fur for hours, and still not being done
~Fishing with my friends
~Laying under the magical willow tree, my own secret garden
~Shucking corn, snapping beans, shelling peas, picking apples & mulberries with all my cousins for my Grandmother, My Mom and my Aunts to can.
~Playing gas station with our bikes.
~Putting playing cards in the bike spokes to make the click-click sound
~Long bike rides with nothing but farmland as far as the eye can see with friends and family
~In the evening, standing at the edge of the corn field and looking out into the skyline miles away at the closest town and believing with all my heart that it was the city. It was and still is a tiny town.
~Spending time at the farmers market, big weekend for this small farm town girl.
~My first puppy love Adam, my first kiss it still makes me swoon. *sigh* I hope he's happy and well
~Summer was when I lost all my awkwardness and discovered my femininity.
~I learned how to play gin rummy and discovered the CB radio! Heh!
~Summer is when a real rodeo cowboy moved into town and all the young girls were smitten, including me

*sigh* Yeah, Summer was great. Thanks for the reminder.

[cab54]

The smell of new-mown grass.
Catching fireflies in jars with cotton balls in it.
Getting all sweaty and dirty, and getting a tub bath every night.
Looking out the window just at dusk and seeing my Grandma out with a flashlight looking for fishing worms. (they lived next door)
Homemade vanilla ice cream.
Tomatoes and corn from our garden.
Canning tomatoes with Mom.
Freezing corn with Mom.
Playing baseball every night with all the neighbor kids, in our back yard, till dark.
Playing in the sprinkler in the yard.
Wearing "sunsuits".

[sunshine]

~ using the scythe to cut winding bicycle trails in the pasture's tall grass
~ sitting in the shade trees of the front yard, snapping green beans, shelling peas or cutting corn off the cob
~ taking the tractor and wagon to the pond after supper and swimming until dusk
~ making houses in the hay loft from the hay bales
~ laying on sheets in the grass in the afternoons, and imagining images in the clouds
~ my grandmother sitting in the shade and reading us poetry, or Shakespeare

[annymoll]

Summertime was, and still is, the best season of all to me!

*The ice cream truck and a red white and blue bomb pop on a hot afternoon.
*Family reunions and BBQ's.
*The church softball league and tennis lessons.
*Drive in movies with our pj's on and the kiddie area before the show.
*Wading in the Gasconade River and float trips down the Niangua.
* Grandma sending me to Camp Crestridge for Girls every summer.
*Snapping peas, shucking corn and slicing watermelon.
*Vacation Bible School.
*Whipoorwills and a campfire at night with ghost stories.
*Horseback riding, fishing, crawdads and sneaking to the quarry to swim.

" Those crazy nights I do remember in my youth, I do recall those were the best times most of all......My favorite summer song from so long ago- still sends me back there!

[heartofmine]

I spent a lot of time with my mom in the woods and fields picking blackberries and other wild berries for jelly. Play time was spent riding bikes, riding my pony, playing with my pet chicken, playing in the woods, swinging on grapevines, skinning trees (if anyone knows what that one is LOL), wading the creeks, going into caves. I was a bit of a tomboy. We use to go down to the creek where my mom had a homemade grill fixed with rocks and and old oven rack. She's fix hotdogs for us and we'd do marshmallows over the open flames. Sometimes we didn't even have the hotdogs and she'd heat up home cooked pintos and fix flitter bread on the top of the fire. Other times they would clean, cook and eat the fish my dad and brothers caught right there. We'd wade the creek, swim while my dad and brothers were usually fishing. Use to have a blast down there.

Things changed when our home burned down when I was 10. We moved next to my grandparents and had some neighbors that were not very nice people. They made being a kid complicated. My sis and I use to spend a lot of time at my grandpa's ponds fishing or riding our bikes on the gravel road when we weren't helping our mom gathering those berries etc.

[MaryCarney]

Where I grew up in northwest Indiana, the area was basically reclaimed swampland. So about every week in the summer, big trucks would cruise the neighborhoods blowing what we called 'mosquito spray'. When you heard them coming - you ran home and closed the windows, no matter HOW hot it was. When the 'mosquito spray' fog finally settled, you could open stuff up again.
We also spent time running through the sprinkler, and my Uncle Sid would take us to the beach (Lake Michigan). He was my Aunt Jean's boyfriend of 40 years, and his poker buddy owned the 31 flavors ice cream place a block away. He would give us each a dollar (an exhorbitant sum in the 60's) and we would make ourselves SICK buying ice cream all day.
My mom's go-to meal in the hot weather was BLT's or pancakes.

[imagine]

I remember riding my bike after breakfast to the swimming pool to swim eating a candy bar for lunch swimming until dinner time then riding home.

I remember getting in trouble when my parents got the tab bill for only eating a candy bar for lunch for over a whole month

I remember family vacations. My father was a one of those that had to leave the state and not give a phone number or work would have been constantly calling. So for two weeks back to back we went on a family vacation we went to some very amazing places.

I also remember weeks at camp and trips to go visit my grandparents who lived in different states.