I'm not sure what the weather is like where you live but here we are having a heatwave! The temps are predicted to be in the 90's all week. I think Thursday they are saying 97 degrees! I can remember hardly being able to wait for summer to arrive when I was a child. We didn't have much growing up and how I longed for a pool to swim in on those hot hot days. The next best thing though was the sprinkler. I have so many memories of running through it. My mom would sometimes also bring out a piece of clear plastic(I'm sure that went over some window or door in winter) and we would have our own homemade slip and slide. Oh the fun we had putting that plastic on an incline! I can still feel that cold cold well water coming out of that hose.
I remember too as a child swimming in creeks or brooks with slippery rocks covered with moss. We would dam up sections of the brook at our childhood home and make our own swimming hole.
I also have fond memories of swimming in my grandma's pond at her farm in Franklin. It's funny because I hear so many kids today say they would never swim in a pond. We loved it(and it was our only choice). I remember that deep squishy mud between my toes when you first went in and floating around on the huge black tractor tire tubes.I can also remember my grandma's voice calling us from the house telling us not to go out so far.
Other memories I have of summer long ago are mostly from my grandma's farm as that is where I would stay most summers. I can remember counting the days till summer break so that we could go spend the summer there. I'm telling you if there was a choice between Disney World or the farm(which there was no choice) we would have chosen the farm! I can remember so many fun times! But we were also expected to work. I remember weeding grandma's huge garden, helping the guys "hay it" as we say here and milking chores.
I can remember my grandpa and dad at different times coming through the door on a hot summer day and saying things like"It's'hotter than the blazes out there" or " It's hot as the dickens" , "hotter than Hades" , "hot as all get out"or "I'm hotter than a hen in a wool blanket". Another expression I remember later on was "It's hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk".
Besides swimming I recall vividly that sight and sound of the Good Humor Ice Cream truck barreling through our neighborhood. We would run real fast so as not to miss him and I remember "bomb pops " as being my favorite. They were red, white and blue popsicles.
Do you remember the old Tupperware popsicle makers?
These were another fond memory of summers gone by.Going to get ice cream was not a luxury we enjoyed as much as families do today. I think my favorite pop to make was cherry Kool-Aid. I still have a set of these in my own home today. My own kids loved these too.
There's no doubt there's no ignoring summer. It is definately a strong season. So whether we like it or not we must make the best of this hot spell. Here is a link for some ideas to stay cool. Some are very obvious.
I will leave you with some summery thoughts and quotes.
"What dreadful hot weather we have. It keeps me in a continual state of inelegance"~ Jane Austen
You know it is hot when you realize asphalt has a liquid state.
Ah, summer what power you have to make us suffer and like it~ Russel Baker
"Summer breeze makes me feel fine
Blowin through the jasmine in my mind"~ Seals And Croft 1972
A life without love is like a year without summer.
-- Swedish Proverb
A perfect summer day is when the sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, the birds are
singing, and the lawn mower is broken.
-- James Dent
Celebrate Summer - Sun drenched days and starlit night -- Gooseberry Patch
Deep summer is when laziness finds respectability.
-- Sam Keen
Heat, ma'am! it was so dreadful here, that I found there was nothing left for it but to take off my flesh and sit in my bones.
-- Sydney Smith
I wonder what it would be like to live in a world where it was always June.
-- L. M. Montgomery
Summer afternoon - summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.
-- Henry James
Summer is the time when one sheds one's tensions with one's clothes, and the right kind of day is jeweled balm for the battered spirit. A few of those days and you can become drunk with the belief that all's right with the world.
-- Ada Louise Huxtable
You can never appreciate the shade of a tree unless you sweat in the sun.-- Author Unknown
And finally we can't forget Nat King Cole
Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer
Those days of soda and pretzels and beer
Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer
Dust off the sun and moon and sing a song of cheer
Just fill your basket full of sandwiches and weenies
Then lock the house up, now you're set
And on the beach you'll see the girls in their bikinis
As cute as ever but they never get 'em wet
Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer
Those days of soda and pretzels and beer
Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer
You'll wish that summer could always be here
Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer
Those days of soda and pretzels and beer
Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer
Dust off the sun and moon and sing a song of cheer
Don't hafta tell a girl and fella about a drive-in
Or some romantic movie seen
Right from the moment that those lovers start arrivin'
You'll see more kissin' in the cars than on the screen
Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer
Those days of soda and pretzels and beer
Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer
You'll wish that summer could always be here
You'll wish that summer could always be here
You'll wish that summer could always be here
