It is Summer!!

 

School is out and what a fun and glorious feeling! I went outside to try and hear all the chanting and hollering as neighborhood kids walked home from school on the last day! As adults, I think we should always remember the joy of that day. As a kid, we sang all the way home! When arriving home we threw our school bag full of last day papers, leftover notebooks, candy wrappers, bologna sandwiches into the closet never to be seen again until the beginning of the next school year. We took off our shoes too and put them in the closet.

Summertime, lazy wonderful summertime! (Even though it is still a big chilly.) I am grateful my summers didn’t involve technology of any sort. It was play and imagination all summer long. My childhood home was tucked into what is now an historic district in Fort Wayne. We hung sheets on the clothesline for plays and charged the neighbors a nickel to come see our shows. I don’t remember what shows we performed; I probably wrote them myself. I am sure Shakespeare did not arrive yet in my childhood! One year I had a newspaper for the neighborhood and had a staff. Every morning, I assigned stories to the other kids on my staff (we were probably 9 or 10) and we set off to find the stories of the day! I wrote them all in long hand and had my dad make copies at his office. Again, those newspapers sold for a nickel.

Summers also meant the book mobile. My friends and I sat out on the curb with armfuls of books waiting to exchange them at the book mobile. We then carried our new armful of books home for the week. The bread truck came by once a week also delivering bread to the neighbors. Sunbeam bread had tiny little loaves made in the summertime and tossed them out to the kids from the back of the truck. They were our very own little loaves of bread! And really, what kid from that time period does not remember chasing the fog truck as it sprayed for mosquitoes. Of course, now we would be horrified to see such a thing, but we all joined in the street to follow the truck.

When we were a little older, my parents rented a big old house on Lake Michigan for the entire summer. We left on Memorial Day and came back on Labor Day. The house did not have a shower or a bathtub, so we just jumped in the lake every night even on those chilly June mornings. There was a big fireplace and cozy chairs for reading. There were no televisions, but lots of card games at night as the occasional bat swooped around the living room. Except for the bats, it was so lovely. My grandparents brought up their Airstream trailer and always spent a few weeks with us. We read books, went to town to “people watch” as my dad would say while eating ice cream. Those were perfect summers.

With my own boys, our summers were full of working on the farm, playing baseball, doing all our 4-H projects. One summer we had thirty projects which kept us all busy until fair week.

I miss those days, of course, but new traditions spring up to keep me well occupied. The Charleston Children begin their summer with me this coming Friday! I have all the grannie activities planned: chocolate pudding at midnight, full moon fairy dances, books by the dozen, movies at the Brokaw, prizes from Dollar General, treats from Dairy Queen, library reading programs, fun times with Aaron and Rachel and the boys, and lazy days. I also have them enrolled in the summer camps in the park.

I think sometimes we feel we need to spend lots of money on our kids, but to build memories with them, that is not so. My favorite summers were the ones I already mentioned, but what else can we do to make summer magical. Being with our kids, putting our phones done (yes please) is one of the best summer activities. Catch lightning bugs (and send them on their way back out before bedtime), make homemade popsicles, watch the stars come out, walk barefoot in the garden on the morning dew.

Parents, remember that childhood is such a short time in their life. Let them have fun, be playful, each watermelon, and just be there for them!