Lady bugs, catching lightning bugs, playing in the backyard sprinkler, the sound of roller skates on the sidewalk, playing outside until dark, the smell of rain on dusty pavement, jump rope, hopscotch drawn with a rock on cement, hide and seek, mother-may-I, tag, bicycles, afternoon storms, sandbox, screen door slamming and Mom telling us to not slam it.
Those are some of my childhood summer memories. I grew up in the city. My mom didn't start working away from home until I was nine years old, so summers also meant Kool-aid and cookies as a snack in the afternoon. She didn't have a car, so we seldom got to go swimming. When we did, it was a big deal for us because we had to take the city bus. I didn't know how to swim, but I loved playing in the water.
Once my big brother decided to teach me to swim. So he pushed me into the water! Neither I nor my mother was amused. Needless to say, I didn't learn to swim until I was in my thirties.
Summer has always been my favorite season. As a child I don't remember suffering with the heat as much as we do now. When it was really hot we played in the sandbox that was under a trellis of grape vines. The sand was cool and we were in the shade. Or we played on our big front porch.
The porch went across the front of the house. It had wide wooden banisters. And half of the porch was shielded from the sun by a rose trellis. My girlfriends and I spent many hours there playing house with our dolls. And sometimes my big brother and I would play cards. We played war and the games would sometimes go on for days. Between times we each took our cards and hid them in our room so we couldn't cheat. I wasn't smart enough to realize that my brother could figure out how to stack his deck to win more cards the next time we played.
The garage was a cool place to play. It had a cement floor and no sun got in. We could climb around in the "loft" of lumber my dad kept for projects. And one time he brought home a ski-ball machine and fixed it so we didn't have to put coins in to play. I loved that.
Summer has lots of happy memories for me. Little wonder it is my favorite season. What are some of your summer memories? Would you share them?
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