Do you remember summer as a kid? Playing outside until the sun goes down with only brief stops at home for food at lunch and dinner? The sound of the ice cream truck coming down the street?
In my house we had a chest of drawers by the front door (a credenza, I learned as I grew older). It was painted apple green and had a plate full of pennies on top. We were allowed to use those pennies to buy ice cream.
I remember playing catch with my dad in the back yard. My brother in his chaps and cowboy hat, six guns a blazin’. (Hey, we’re a John Wayne family—and my brother took that literally). I remember swinging on the swing set, certain that if I tried hard enough I could touch the sky. My brother traveling through the badlands on his teeter-totter. I remember lightening bugs and glass jars. Slithery green garden snakes that scared the snot out of me. Following my daddy as we hunted the ‘monster’ in the freshly mowed grass. 
I remember toes the in the water. Splashing in rain puddles. Collecting spent fire crackers (we truly believed they were treasure) in my brother’s little red wagon. I remember riding my trike (double decker with a step in the back), my first bike complete with battery operated light and bell. I remember the ten-speed I bought with my own money—my first big purchase—and the freedom it gave me, expanding my summertime world to the next neighborhood over.
I remember weeks spent at my grandparent’s. Cook-outs in the back yard with my grandfather’s amazing BBQ chicken, and my grandmother’s lemonade and corn on the cob. Bare feet, shorts, the smell of grass and roses. Bugs. And the laughter of the adults coming through the open window when we were supposed to be in bed and asleep.
As I grew older it seemed that summer got shorter and shorter. Until it disappeared altogether. I remember when I was just out on my own with my first job, I travelled through my grandparent’s town, and sat on the picnic table in the empty backyard of their house (they were out of town). And I cried, realizing that those summer days were gone. That I was grown, and that nothing would ever be the same.
Many years have passed since that day. My grandparents are gone. My dad is gone. But the memories are there, tucked away in the corners of my mind. So yesterday, I was out walking and saw three kids playing in the puddles from a recent rain shower. And their laughter took me back, if just for a few moments, to those lazy, hazy days when I was a kid and the ice cream truck 
beckoned.
So what are your favorite memories of summertime?
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{ 22 comments… read them below or add one }
When I was little my grandparents had a huge tobacco farm, so a lot of time was spent chasing the chickens and daring each other to get in the pig pen. I had an uncle who was just 6 years older than me and he would hitch one of the horses or mules to a tobacco sled and pull us around in it at full speed. At the time I thought it was the most thrilling thing in the world!! After the farm was gone, it was going on adventures in the woods and spraying each other with the garden hose. Not very exciting to some, but we had a blast!!
I think much of our memories are about the people we spent time with in the summer. That’s almost more important than what we did. And the coolest thing about summertime fun is that simple was almost always better!
I remember tying a jump rope to the bicycle seat and then pulling someone on roller skates behind. We called it skiing.
I remember taking swimming lessons every summer and every summer I ended up with an ear ache. I finally got smart enough to lie about my ear aches until swimming lessons were over.
At night we would play hide and seek with the flashlight.
If I was ever too far away to hear my Dad whistle for me to come home for dinner then he would make me go cut a switch. All he’d do is swat me on the legs a few times. If it was a choice of going to my room or getting to go back outside to play, I’d take a switching anytime.
I had a friend whose Dad always whistled them home. We thought it was so cool. it was really loud!
I remember going to the city pool and also playing kick the can and open fire hydrants which you hardly even see any more. Those were the days. Great post!
I’ve always thought that sounded like tons of fun!
Oh! Great question! I used to tool all over the neighborhood on my bike with my friends, or get dropped off at Barton Springs for the entire day, with a parent coming back at the end of the day, after we’ve baked in the sun. Younger, lots of playing in the mud, building forts, searching for snakes, exploring vacant lots…fun stuff!
We had great summers where I lived but sadly, no ice cream trucks (no idea why). I remember the neighborhood kids biking to 7-11 for slurpees and atomic fireballs and pixie sticks. I remember eating watermelon outside on newspaper, just as the sun was going down. I can remember sitting on the roof and watching fourth of July fireworks from the park, and those orange ghost-looking thing that you hooked up to the waterhose and it sprayed water all over the place (no IDEA what this is called, but I remember watching it dance, and squealing when the water hit.
Great summer memories. Awesome job, Dee!
Oh, those water things! Those were great water things, Kathleen.
was it like Mr. Wiggle? Or something like that?
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2k3ab_water-wiggle-slip-n-slide-by-wham-o Water Wiggle.
Dee, those were my summers, too. Add in Kick the Can at night, and you could have been me. And it never seemed as hot as it does now, right? It was hot, but not hot enough to keep us inside. Just at the pool.
We used to play kick the can at night, too!
Sounds like our summers were very similar, Dee. Toss is weekends spent on the boat. We’d swim and play on the beach from morning til night, then climb into our bunks, exhausted. Ah, to be that carefree again!
Yeah, I never remember hot. At least not like now. And we played kick the can as well. Forgot about that. And something with a flag?
Being a new parent myself (my son is 3 1/2 months), I have watched summer drift by thinking: “I can’t wait until my son is up and running around, ready to chase the ice dream truck or splash in puddles.” For now, I’m content to read your fabulous new series while he sleeps in my arms!
Oh that’s such a wonderful age (actually every age is wonderful!) And thanks for the positive thoughts on A-Tac!
Thank you for that wonderful walk down memory lane. You described my childhood summers perfectly! We lived on a lake so my memories also include days on the water, either in the canoe, the speedboat, swimming, fishing off the dock with cane poles or just lazing on the raft. (a real raft – the wooden kind on barrels) We rarely ate inside during the summer – preferring the picnic tables in the front yard – and were often joined by neighbors, or friends who had stopped by. I thought my mom was a magician in the kitchen. There was *always* enough food, no matter how many of my friends popped in. And it was all homemade. No pre-packed meals or “deli meals” back in the olden days. lol!
I had a bike like that! Same color and everything. Mine came with the light, bell, streamers on the handlebars and, of course, playing cards in the spokes (we added those ourselves). We rode our bikes everywhere and delighted in the wind through our hair and the freedom of being able to go to town by ourselves (a whole mile!)
My grandparents owned a farm and some of my most precious memories are of summer vacations spent with them. It’s been more than 40 years since they sold the farm but I can still close my eyes and be taken right back to those lazy summer days where my biggest worry was how many pancakes (with hand-churned butter and homemade maple syrup) I could eat before my tummy cried “Uncle!”
My grandparents and parents are all gone now but the memories remain in a treasured corner of my heart. Thanks for the reminder to take them out for a visit.
Oh man, forgot about cards in the spokes. We did that too. And I had streamers as well. Loved that bike!!!! And pancakes…now I’m hungry for my grandfather’s pancakes. He’d get up before the rest of the house and wake my brother and I to “help”. It was awesome!!!!
My bike had a purple sparkly “banana” seat–I LOVED it!
Oh, PJ, that sounds like my grandparents, only it was homemade biscuits and syrup. Does anyone wonder why I am a healthy girl? hahahahaha
Oh, Dee, you couldn’t have done a better job of describing my childhood summers! Seriously.
Now, I relive those times by watching my son do the exact same things, complete with ice cream truck. Funny, I don’t remember the truck looking so old and battered, or the music being so warbling and annoying. LOL
I know isn’t it amazing how different things look through the eyes of a parent?