Summertime Memories

This week Mama Kat asked us to make a list of the top ten things we loved about summer when we were growing up. This one was easy for me because I have always loved summer.  I'm forever trying to talk my boys into getting off their electronics and going outside more in the summer and usually I get, "It's too hot! And besides, there's nothing to do out there!"  Ugh.  


"It was just as hot when I was a kid in the South!" I remind them.  And then I go into this long, old lady lecture about how we didn't have five hundred and seventy nine channels on the t.v., cell phones, XBoxes, iPods, computers and the worldwide web at our fingertips 24-7.  No sirree.  We had to make our own fun.  Outside! And by gosh, we loved it!  


And it never works. Though they do occasionally wander outside on their own before coming back inside to complain about the heat and the boredom. 


It's just that, looking back, my most memorable, fond moments of Summertime are all about simple things and times had outside in the open air, sunshine and undeniable southern humidity and I sometimes feel that they are missing out on those things.


Oh sure, we spent our fair share of time inside on the Atari playing Pac-Man, in the floor playing Monopoly and Life, and on the phone telling Mr. So and So to go and catch his running refrigerator before it got away (Caller ID...what a buzz kill) and even watching The Days of Our Lives, General Hospital, Looney Tunes and old reruns of I Love Lucy, Bewitched and Gilligan's Island on our televisions but the very best times were always had outside.  


And you can bet that if I was engaging in one of the following activities, I was happy, from the inside out...


1. Playing with the water hose, slip n' slide or in the kiddie pool in the backyard.  Getting the opportunity to actually go swimming in a pool, lake, creek or ocean was a rare treat and one that was never, ever turned down. But that old faithful water hose was better than nothing and it was always there to get us through the hottest of summer days.     

2. Catching lightning bugs aka fireflies at dusk. Although we poked holes in the jar lid before setting them in our rooms at night, they always died and I always felt such deep guilt so eventually, I stopped putting them in jars...just caught them and let them go.  

That's me, the little one in the dress, with my cousin, older brother and grandmother, Ollie Mae

3. Swinging on the swings or monkey bars, riding my Big Wheel down the driveway or bike around the neighborhood.  I only recall ever having two bikes in my childhood.  The first was a little red bike with training wheels that were eventually removed and then one year for Christmas I received my big yellow bike with the white seat and basket on the front that I sometimes rode our little dog, Charmagne, around in.  There was no better feeling in the world than riding that yellow bike down the big hill with my hair in the wind and my best friend by my side on her bike with her, umm...duck.  Yes, I said duck. A boy duck named Lily.  

Priceless.  

4. Watching the fireworks down by the river levee on the Fourth of July. It just doesn't get any more American than that.  

Posing with the Pinto...Gotta love it!

5. Going to Six Flags. I grew up about 70 miles from Atlanta and no summer was ever complete without at least one trip to Six Flags Over Georgia.  The Scream Machine and The Mindbender were my all-time favorite roller coasters.  

That's me, front and center, sportin' the dork uniform and bad perm at Six Flags Over Georgia circa 1980 something.  But never mind me, check out Clark Griswold in the background, stylin' and profilin'  in those hawt short shorts and tube socks. How did I never notice him before now and where the hell were Stacy and Clinton back then? Because clearly, we were all in need of their services.

6. Eating watermelon on the picnic table. There was no better treat in summertime than biting into a juicy red slice of fresh watermelon and just getting all sticky with it as the juice ran down your arms. But swallowing a seed would fill me with overwhelming worry every time, until I got old enough to realize that swallowing a seed was not going to grow a watermelon vine out of my rear end or belly button!  

7. Playing neighborhood softball, Red Rover, Truth or Dare, and Ghost in the Graveyard, which I broke my collarbone playing when I was fourteen.  That was my last summer in Georgia and though I've never given it much thought, my last summer of childhood (late bloomer). That was also my first and so far, only, (knock-knock-knock on wood) time being treated in the ER.  Wish I could say the same for my youngest child!

8. Camping out under the stars in the backyard. You couldn't pay me to sleep out there with no shelter now but I was all about it as a kid.  I think we once slept on lounge chairs and carried every stuffed animal I owned out there with us. We were girly girl tomboys, I guess. 

9. Eating Popsicles, of any kind, but especially homemade ones or as we called them at my babysitter Mrs. White's house, Pop ups, which is what we also called Pop-Tarts.  I have no idea why. I mean the Pop-Tarts made since because they "popped up" out of the toaster but I never knew why we called the Popsicles that too.  Hmm...

10. Going barefoot.  I'm still barefoot in the house pretty much year round but when I was a kid I went around barefoot all the time in the summer, even outside. Unless shoes were required I wasn't going to put them on. Which is kinda funny since I am now a major shoe addict.  

Myrtle Beach, 1979. That's me rockin' the kickass Wonder Woman suit

So what about you? What did you love most about summer when you were growing up?