Thursday, June 28, 2012
Your Turn
Yesterday I saw some kids playing in a sprinkler but it was not the sprinkler I had growing up. You know, the cold water that went back and forth and just got you wet. This one hooked up to the hose and was an octopus and actually looked fun. Why did it take 100 years to come up with that? I would love to hear your favorite summer memories. Summer romance? Fireworks accident? Food poisoning at the family BBQ? A cousin getting a little too handsy? 12 hours trips in the back of a car?
Best summer I ever had was my internship with the Red Cross when I was in college. Met my best friend and got the fuck away from my family for the first time. That taste of freedom convinced me to never look back.
ReplyDeleteThe summer after 7th grade was spent going to the pool every day & camping out in the tree house out back every night with my friend from across the street. Oh! We also broke out the slip-n-slide every few days. Not sure why but that was probably my favorite summer from childhood.
ReplyDeleteI used to go and spend summers with my Granny in a heavily industrialized town in mid- Wales. A river ran along the bottom of the garden and me and the local children used to spend hours trying to walk along the riverbank without falling in.(see this link-
ReplyDeletehttp://s0.geograph.org.uk/photos/55/08/550867_2278f221.jpg
Of course we all fell in the river every single day for a whole magical month every August! There was so much moss on the stones that there was little chance of staying upright on such a slippery surface. Such lovely memories.
Because when we were kids it was never ALL ABOUT THE KIDS. We simply got whatever we got and were damn happy with it. We got: "Go outside and don't come back in until I call you for supper."
ReplyDeleteHate to sound crotchety, but damn! No wonder kids are such GD entitled brats these days. In the 60's and 70's we didn't get 10 cheap-ass Chinese-made toys every week from Dollar Tree or Wal-Mart like they do now.
I stubbed my toes plenty of times running through that old rotating two-head sprinkler back in the day, and kept going back for more!
(I mowed the grass at only 11 years old BAREFOOT too!)
You'd think all our parents were Social Services nightmares back in my day, but that's just how it was!
Best memories, though, were at my Grandmama's house on the Pasquotank River. Good Lord her food was to die for. And my Granddaddy owned a little Shell gas station in Weeksville and he gave us all the ice creams and sodas we could guzzle down.
ReplyDeleteAhh, good times.
Best summer? I was in college and decided to take a years worth of chemistry in summer school (best advice - don't do it). I lived in a dorm that also housed the North Carolina School of the Arts orchestra summer school. I used to sit out on the landing and study and listen to different students practicing their instruments - very soothing.
ReplyDeleteStrangest summer - I was around 13 or 14 and developed an obsession with ironing (which delighted my mother). I spent 1-2 days a week ironing EVERYTHING including sheets, pillow cases and underwear for my parents, brother and sister. I've gotten over that obsession.
Between 8th grade and high school I spent the summer at the Jersey shore with my grandparents - the entire summer and it was the best. I sailed out on the bay and read a paperback book a day. Walked the boardwalk and ate waffles and ice cream.
ReplyDelete@selenakyle - I can't stop laughing. We had the same childhood.
ReplyDeleteselenakyle and Agent**It: same goes for me. I ran around barefoot all day, playing hide and seek, and drinking out of the hose. I can't imagine having a kid this day and age.
ReplyDeleteSummers with the grandparents. Farm. Running thru the corn fields -- racing my cousins to see who could slap the metal scarecrow. The field was for Kellogs and the scarecrows were Snap Crackle and Pop! Going fishing with my grandfather. He would break up hay bales for us kids to jump out the upper door of the barn onto (until Grandmother said it was too dangerous (so we would wait until she went to town!)
ReplyDeleteWe celebrated 4th o' July at Woodley Park one year when I was about 8 years old...I was a rollerskating queen by that age and I was rolling all around the park going further than I should of course. I ended up breaking my ankle and these nice guys drove me around in their pickup truck until we found my family. I had a full cast for about 2 months and then I "accidentally" fell into the pool and pretended it didn't hurt anymore to the doctor so they wouldn't put on a second one!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was 16 years old, my parents let me fly across the country to spend a month in Long Island with my cute ginger boyfriend and his family. We stayed in a beautiful old house right on the water and had an absolute blast. During the day we would go out on their boat, swim, fish, go crab-catching, watch George Carlin videos, and ride around the tiny town in their old pickup truck...and at nights we would, um, experiment quietly upstairs. That summer was the first time I ever told a guy I loved him, and he said it back to me. I thought I was floating on cloud 9.
ReplyDeleteThen he dumped me as soon as I got home.
But it's still my favorite summer memory!
Honestly most of my childhood is a blank to me. What I do recall are the horse shows we always went to. My mother used to do barrel racing (it used to be called contesting.) Since we didn't have money for a fancy trailer, we usually ended up riding in the back of a pick up truck, no cap. There was a time when we had a horse trailer that had a tack storage area in the front of the trailer, that we would ride in. So yeah the smell of leather, straw and horse sweat brings back a lot of memories...is that weird?
ReplyDeleteEvery time there's a sunshower I remember my cousins and I playing in the street in our bathing suits. Their other grandmother lived kitty corner to my grandparents and she would bring out popsicles for us. My grandmother's best friend also lived across the street and they operated a candy store on the main floor. She gave us free candy all the time and her husband would yell at her from upstairs. Sunshowers, popsicles, the smell of penny candy, and falling asleep to the low hum of deep voices speaking French (my Dad and my uncles). The brightest moments of my childhood.
ReplyDeleteI just remember summers being really long back then. Or they felt longer, I guess. I remember spending most of my time outside, running around in the woods, swimming, riding bikes and getting dirty.
ReplyDeleteBest summer memory - I was part of an archaeological dig (near Vancouver) and a bunch of us decided to have a big crab boil/BBQ on the beach. It was a ton of fun (those of us who keep in touch keep saying we need to do it again) and of course many drinks were had.
ReplyDeleteThe funniest part was after we got there and had been drinking for quite awhile (drinking on the beach is illegal here, but we weren't being obnoxious, so no one really cared), the cops showed up to do a drinking & driving counterattack (road check) on the road right by where we were. My dear husband, who had had quite a few beers, wanted to go over to see if he could get them to use the speedermeter gun on him as he ran by. We still won't let him live it down ("No really guys! I think I can run fast enough to get clocked!" - love him dearly but he's hardly athletic). Luckily, I was sober enough to not let him go over to the cops and ask.
My parents would take us 3 kids to the beach to stay a long weekend once every summer. We lived in Eastern NC and we'd rotate to all the hot spots. Atlantic Beach, White Lake, Wrightsville, The Outer Banks....... good times!
ReplyDeleteI had one of those octopus sprinklers when I was a kid! I was an 80s/90s kid though.
ReplyDeleteBest memory would be going fishing with my dad, gramps, and brother. Big deal because I was the baby in the family and the only girl. We got caught in a rainstorm on the middle of the lake, and gramps and I laughed like some kind of maniacs while we were speeding back to the dock in the downpour while my big brother was a big, whiny wuss about getting soaked :)
I think that was the first year I got to set off fireworks too (supervised, of course.) Fucking awesome. What kid doesn't like fire and explosives?
summer dances at the yacht, beach and golf clubs. tweenage drunkard fun.
ReplyDeleteahh, those were the days. briefly/
2 summers. The first was at my Grandparents. My Grandfather would tell me all the legends from our Tribe. I still remember them all. He also showed me all the stars and told me the names. I got to run around their land and climb trees and every weekend he took me to the horse shows at the stable down the road. As a teenager, we went camping in a trailer in a National Forest next to a Reservation. I saw black bears up close. We swam everyday, fished, boated, hiked, and had fun. No electricity, so we read books and played games. My dad would come up on weekends and the rest of the time we were just with our Mom. We got a puppy, smartest dog I have ever known. Did not have to housebreak him or teach him to walk on a leash. Got to know more about my background. Miss those days.
ReplyDeleteY'all all had better childhoods than I did! I hope my kids will have these kinds of lovely memories of their childhoods, though :-).
ReplyDeleteI grew up in the Bronx in an area that was very suburban. Rowhouses all across the street, lots of single family houses with yards and only one apartment building on my street and it was a small one with about 10 apartments. My mother was actually born in the house next door to the house in which I grew up. My grandparents moved there when they got married and raised my mom there. My grandmother bought the two lots next door and gifted it to my folks so they could build their house there. Our house was a 10-room brick house with three porches, and fruit trees. My dad had a green thumb and there was enough room for him to plant a few flower beds, some trees and we even grew corn, and tomatoes. Factoid: The Bronx was originally farmland with really rich soil.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, growing up, we were very friendly with all of the families on our block. One summer my parents and a few other neighbors decided to hold a block party. My dad wasn't the most social person in the world, so I now marvel at him being one of the instigators of the whole event. My folks filed for the permits to close the street off and they had to get a petition signed by most of the residents of the street. One man who lived further down the street was totally against it and said our little block party was "going to turn into another Woodstock", lmao! My father was utterly disgusted and thereafter referred to that poor man as "Woodstock". I can't recall what his name was (I think John?) but when we would see him drive or walk by, my dad would say, "There's that stupid bastard, Woodstock!" or "There's that idiot, Woodstock!" He never referred to him by his actual name again. I crack up whenever I think about it, or whenever Woodstock is mentioned.
Anyway, the block party was a huge success. My dad roasted a pig, my mom made a dozen apple pies (with apples we picked from one of our annual trips upstate to go apple picking) and my aunt, uncle and cousins came with some enormous pans of baked ziti and meatballs and all the neighbors brought food that we set up on tables in the middle of the closed off street and we had a blast. People of all colors and ethnic backgrounds, listening to music, sharing food, having a wonderful time. (But honestly, when I think of the block party, I think of my dad's irritation with "Woodstock" and I crack up.)
I remember summer about 1960 or so, we lived in the suburbs --on a block with 4 "little boxes" houses...all alike just painted differently. All the little girls on the block would gather every day on one front yard, and play Barbies all day--we made houses out of things like boxes and furniture out of tissue boxes or whatever--it would take us half the morning to set up and we'd play til supper time.
ReplyDeleteSome day's we'd play in the sprinklers with the boys on someone's yard, or we'd roller skate on the sidewalk. One of those summers, my dad was off work sick and my mom had to work, and most days he would take me to the A&W drive-in that had car-hops, and we'd have a cheeseburger and a frosty root beer for lunch.
@car54,
ReplyDelete"A&W drive-in that had car-hops, and we'd have a cheeseburger and a frosty root beer for lunch."
The one in Quincy/Weymouth area ?
Lovely memories, guys.
ReplyDeleteI was just feeding the cat and remembered my old cat called Caroline. I used to dress her in my baby sister’s clothes(bonnet and dress) and wheel her around the park opposite home in my doll’s pram. She didn’t mind this but sometimes she’d jump out of the pram and run home.....all dressed up!
Ok, I've thought of good summer memories - sleepovers with the cousins! Yes - I knew I had a few good ones in there!
ReplyDeleteWe'd get to stay up late and watch cable tv - ooo la la! A few of my cousins were older than me, so my younger cousin and I got educated in all the coolest teenage music.
We also rode the bus to the mall and milled around - it was pretty far, even by adult standards.
My younger cousin and I also made quite a career out of stalking her next door neighbor, a guy a few years older than us. I'm pretty sure he ended up in prison. Now, that was good old fashioned fun!
My best friend's family had a really nice built in pool and we spent summers around there. Days like today when it's 90-100 degrees out we would have been by the pool by 11 a.m. and wouldn't have left until 6 or 7 p.m. and then probably come back after dinner. I miss very little about being a kid, but I really miss that all the time.
ReplyDeleteI don't have one particular memory, but I do remember some pretty epic water balloon fights. And one summer we went to the country for a family reunion and found an animal graveyard. And I was only like 5 at that time, so I couldn't grasp it, but I'm pretty sure we found a human skull :$
ReplyDeleteI think the best times of anyone's lives as a child or teen always have to do with summer. Everything just feels more important and lifechanging.
Car trips to Russian River! San Francisco is cold and foggy in the summer. We would go up to Russian River where I promptly nearly drowned a couple of times.
ReplyDeleteMy bday is in August, and no one could go to my bday parties because school was out. Everyone was on a vacation. My mom's bday is a week before mine, and she got to choose our joint bday cakes. I never got a chocolate cake until I was 16. I envied kids born during the school year, but to this day, I won't work or go to school on my bday.
Funny, my husband is born in July and had the same problem as me with bday parties.
Summer use to be my favorite season because of the 4th of July and fireworks all summer long. Now I'm more partial to spring.
Oh, I forgot. I'm still bitter about not going to summer camp! My older cousins HATED and complained everyday, so my mother said,"no camp for you."
ReplyDeleteI bring up this trauma at EVERY family gathering.
every summer we would take a car trip, thousands of miles, to visit my great grandma, "for the last time". finally when i was 9 my dad refused to go ("not one more LAST TIME visit"). she died when i was in college.
ReplyDeleteanyhoo, we would stay in her house and it was full of all this antique furtniture and weird old paintings that made it like a haunted house. her street was tree lined and at night we'd run up and down the street hiding and jumping out at each other, all the kids on her street. the teens would hide in the trees and the little kids would be screaming. there were fireflies, which we would try (and fail) to catch. it would be so hot, late into the night. i don't remember ever coming in, but obviously i did at some point.
one year we went back and one of the families was moving. just one family, and they hadn't even moved yet. changed the whole thing. no more staying out. thnking about it now, i guess there must have been other grown-up things going on. i kept saying "come on, lets go outside and run!" and i remember my one cousin saying "it doesn't work like that".
My best childhood summer memories were going to camp, the cottage, camping, and visiting my cousins.
ReplyDeleteRandom memories: The sound of crickets in the Summertime still brings me back to my childhood. Flashlight tag. Taking a bag of old bread to feed the ducks in the park. Going to the drive-in movies and we were allowed to wear our pajamas. Hearing the the ice cream truck music in the distance. Swimming all day and the smell of coppertone...the only suntan lotion in existence. My tiny transistor AM radio. Basically my best memory is not having a care in the world.
ReplyDeleteThe summers definitely seemed longer back then, but I wasn't working all day either. I can't wait to retire LOL
ReplyDeleteAgent, I'm in MA now, but I grew up til third grade in Calumet City, Il. Haven't seen an A&W drive in here in years but I can still taste those frosty root beers in my head, lol.
ReplyDeleteWe had a holiday house on the beach. It was a 2 room shack and we loved it. It had a kerosene heated bathtub and an old toilet that always had spiders in it. My parents would play cribbage while we ran amok on the sand.
ReplyDelete@car54: Ever go to a Dog 'n' Suds in Illinois?
ReplyDeleteIt seems like selenakyle, Agent**it, Megerz and I all shared the same summers all those years ago. Life was much simpler and far better then.
I begged to go to summer sleep away camp. My older "slow" brother was forced to go to one on Lake Champlain, and he cried the whole f*cking time. My parents said "girls don't go to sleep away camp." YET, a year or two later those assholes sent me to a proven cult in Italy. Thus never allowing me back in their home.
ReplyDeleteSo yeah, happy childhood memories for me are sporadic. As they only looked good from the outside.
Many of your memories sound much better, like lazy days on the Russian River, or the two room shack on the beach with spiders in the toilet, or dressing your cat up (as I was torn from mine when I was sent away).
My favorite summer memories were going to Lake George, NY with my best friend's family, for many summers, even in HS. I idolized them b/c they were so normal (unlike my crazy fam) and we had so much fun. Besides the regular lake stuff (swimming, cruising, cliff jumping, island picnics, etc.), they'd take us to the drive in theater, shopping, ice cream, etc.
ReplyDeleteI spent all my summers in Jersey and we didn't really do family vacations, but we had to live in Saratoga for two summers in a row for my dad's job so that's the best memory I have w/ the parents. Its beautiful there.