Summer Sweetness

There's really nothing like being a kid in the summer. I lived on a farm for my happy childhood, so summers were pretty much the height of everything (we did not work the farm; just rented the house from a farmer). Barefoot days were spent running around in the yard and by the creek, picking dandilions, running through the sprinkler, climbing trees, and digging holes.

We just finished a fairly untimely heat wave, which reminded me about my happy childhood nights. Once or twice a week, we'd have a camp fire out in the grove and we'd roast marshmallows with my dad. Usually when the sun first started setting, we'd go out to the garden with him and do some weeding and watering. I remember one time we picked these huge tomatoes. I'd never seen such big ones before. Probably not since, either, at least not in my mind's eye.

When it was hot out, we had this water trough-turned-wading pool (it was bought for that purpose and never used for animals), that we'd spend hours in. We played the stupidest games, but it was always so fun. Other water games we played included running through the sprinker, "recycling", which was some version of pouring buckets of water into smaller buckets and through an old drain pipe and then doing it all over again, and "The Big Bazooka", which involved my older brothertying up an old bike inner tube on one end, filing it beyond capacity with water, and then the three of us hiking it up over our shoulders and parading around the yard while JOnathan decided which things to spray it at.

We went to the library a lot. Mom tried to give us some designated reading time (she called it DRAT because she was funny like that), so we'd do the reading program at the library. On really hot days, she'd check out the Star Wars trilogy or rent some Little Rascals movies from the rental store in town, and we'd spend the day inside watching those.

Most nights I slept in my rosebud wallpapered room with a nightgown and a white fan blowing on my face, with the windows wide open letting in the cooler breeze and sounds of crickets. But sometimes, it was just too hot in that old farm house. Sometimes we had these magical nights when we got to camp out in the living room with that window unit on. That is one of my favorite memories of the summers in Swisher. My mom had her own air conditioner in her bedroom window, but us kids would take our blankets and pillows downstairs, and make ourselves a comfortable corner to sleep in. I used to pretend I was camping, because I thought camping was the coolest possible thing back then.

I love those memories, those special times when the whole family was together, working and enjoying each others' company. Mom, thinking of fun things for us to do, trying to get us to read more, and putting up with wet feet tracking grass clippings through the house. Dad, tending the garden, filling the pool, coming home to his wild brood doubtlessly covered in dirt from the day. Me, Jonathan and David (and later Baby Anna), making the most of those sun-kissed days and the freedom to ride our bikes and dig holes and waste water and be kids. I'll never forget it. I'll treasure it all my life. And hopefully my kids will feel the same way about their summers when they look back.