How Did You Spend Your Summer?
 

In the old days (late teens-early twenties), before MS, I so enjoyed Summer. The warmth of the sun on my face, the swimming parties, the cookouts with friends, the laughter of Kids, the barking of friendly dogs, the music, the dancing and late to bed, early to rise..:)

That's how I used to spend my Summer vacation...How about you?

I didn't enjoy the summer days in my teenage years. The heat bothered me and I had no energy during the warm months (now I know why!).

Now the summer nights - those were a blast!!

I didn't have vacations during those years...I had my first child at 19.

Before that, summer vacation meant spending a few weeks at my grandparents' house in southern Vermont. Sitting on the big rock in the back yard, writing poetry. Daydreaming, with my feet in the brook.

Listening to my grandmother talk on the phone with her friend Ruth about General Hospital. Listening to the Red Sox on the radio with Gramp. Getting the eggs. Picking fat blueberries from under the bird nets.

Walking over to the store for an ice cream cone. Poking around in the attic. Swimming at the Salmon Hole while my grandparents sat on a blanket watching me. Having slices of homemade bread and butter, and a big bowl of popcorn for supper while watching the King Family on black and white TV.

Watching deer under the apple tree from the bedroom that used to be my Aunt Mary's, and listening to rain on the metal roof of the old farmhouse. Sitting out on the porch (my grandmother called it the "piazza") watching the thunderstorms. Playing old-timey music on the piano and wheedling until my grandfather got out his clarinet and played along. Then coaxing my grandmother into sitting down at the piano, and spending an hour leaning my elbows on the dining room table, listening to them play.

I miss my Grandma and Grandpa.

When we were in NJ, we were over at my uncle's pool, and it was always a blast. But in OH, there was nothing to do. It was too muggy and boring. Once in a blue moon, lake erie or Cedar Point. Other wise, we just got in trouble.

I have more fun now that I'm old, to tell the truth.

:D

As a child we'd spend several weeks at my Grandmother's tobacco farm in NC. I loved that place. I could spend the entire three weeks there and never once leave the farm. And I never got bored!!

I can remember picking tomatoes with her from her garden and having fresh tomato sandwiches for lunch. Good ole' white Sunbeam bread, mayonnaise and tomatoes. Fresh black pepper and a little salt. YUM!!

There were racks for drying the tobacco leaves lined up at the back of the house. My cousins and I would climb all over those racks. It wasn't anything elaborate but we'd spend hours out there.

On some evenings other family members would come over and we'd fry catfish they'd caught that same day. My Grandmother would make homemade coleslaw from cabbage she'd grown. She'd also make homemade hush puppies that were better than anything I've ever tasted.

I miss those summers so much. Her house didn't have A/C but she had a huge attic fan and kept all the windows open 24/7 with the attic fan going. I don't remember it ever being hot. If there was a thunderstorm we'd all go out to the screened in porch and sit out there and watch it. We'd eat homemade bread & butter pickles my Grandmother had made.

Such simple but fun times. Why can't life be like that today???

Camping! we used to camp a lot. We went to so many places, to show my children the country side, and this great American landscape. it is a cheap way to travel, and keeps you in touch with mother earth. From the Colorado landscapes to the Cape Cod shore lines, we saw it all. I had no issue with waiting in line, hot beaches, traffic or the crowds in stores.

Now? no no no! dont think so. Take it above 75 degrees, and I go blind and stupid. Crowded malls make me anxious and stimulus overload makes my head swirl and me shake. I cant/wont tolerate the baking in the sand that come with a trip to the beach, let alone the nasty crowds, the rude strangers, and the BS of tripping over trash to find a good spot.

Thank God I did all this when I was young, and before MS took a bite out of me. My children have such fond memories of vacations, and funtimes, and dont have memories of missing out on a single thing because mom didnt feel good.

This made me laugh 'cause my Grandmother would talk to her sister on the phone (they called it the "hotline" :p) about their "stories". That's what they called the soap operas......"stories". I think they watched General Hospital, too. :)

Your summers sound very nice! During the day me and my sisters would sit home and watch tv (mostly the soaps), maybe go swimming but with the AC why bother. :rolleyes: My parents both worked so we never went anywhere or did anything! Looking back that is just so sad!! If we did anything, it was never rememberable. I'll just read about all of your summers and enjoy your memories!! :p

Oh, how different times were back then. As a teenager, I worked at a pizza joint until 2-3:00am depending on how big a mess we made. Then, we went out for breakfast and played 4-board backgammon until 4:00 or 5:00am, slept for 2-3 hours and headed out. It was softball teams, car repairs, lake parties, weekends up north (parties while camping), concerts, car repairs, parties, softball, biking, water skiing, retread tires, canoeing, softball, bad golfing, go-karting, kite flying at the dunes, car repairs, river floating, whitewater canoeing, fishing, retread tires, hiking... man, we did it all and we did it all outdoors.

When I was littler, we had a traditional, annual schedule of 3-week sessions of swimming lessons right after school let out— from which, we went directly to the lake, then the road trip that took a bloody eternity every year (so spoiled!), then every waking moment on bikes and the lakes, then, "my mom's vacation" when my dad dropped us and Mom with the big tin can at the campground up north for two weeks. She let us run wild the whole time while she relaxed. Then, it was the coming down: shopping for school clothes— trying on hard shoes, wools, and polyesters in anticipation of cold weather. Hated it!

We woke at sunrise every day, played hard rain or shine, ate pockets-full of animal crackers and baloney on the run, slept over in each others' backyards, and always came home with green feet at dusk to the sounds of yelling mothers throughout the neighborhood.

Sometimes, we snuck out in the night and ran around the neighborhood in our nighties. ;)

Ahhh summer!

Fireflies and the moon, packing 5 kids and the parents in the old station
wagon and heading to the nearest swimming hole, cookouts every weekend, weeding the garden, mowing the stupid lawn, mucking out the cows and the chickens, sneaking cigarettes when we mucked out cause who could smell them with all that manure?

Going to our family's summer cabin on the island every summer after we bought it, swimming in the crystal clear lake, laying on the granite slabs at the point, floating around in the boat at night laying on our backs and watching the stars, waking up to the smell of the cabin and my mom putting the old tin coffeepot on the woodstove and the smell of coffee, pancakes and woodsmoke, picking buckets of blueberries and raspberries, fishing every day cause we had to eat, reading the old books that came with the cabin by the old Aladdin lamp and the smell of those books and the kerosene, pine needles and teaberries...

I can see it all and I remember all the smells, mildew when it rained for weeks and not being able to dry anything...oh wait...that's now...LMAO! :p

Two words for my childhood and adult years, road trips. That's how we always spent our summers for as long as I can remember, still do.

Yes, Dej, you got the idea. We're not in Kansas anymore..:mad:

Since MS, my summers get more unbearable every year. I have to close my eyes and remember the good times, to stay sane.

Thanks all for letting me share in your wonderful summers..

Spent most of my childhood doing the same! Except our cows were for eating, not milking ;).

After age 18... I baby sat in the mornings, spent the afternoons at the pool, spent the evenings in English Comp and Calculus classes. Once I transferred from "junior" college to the University, I worked 20 hours a day in the work study program and carried 12 hours of classes all summer. Got married at 21, finished college in the Spring of 1981 and moved to Ohio with my hubby.

Didn't have much time for play as I wanted out of "h-e-l-l and back", Mississippi!:o Not that it is a bad place, I just wanted to be able to do more than rub two nickels together and wish for more.

This is a fun thread, Sally!

I remember making trips across Death Valley en route from California to Utah to see my Aunts and cousins. Sometimes we drove at night to avoid the stifling heat.

When I was, uhh, 1 year old or so, :o I remember Dad bought a brand new 1964 Dodge Dart with air conditioning! White exterior, black interior with Push-buttons for the radio stations! While others would put a wet towel on their head and stick it out the window, we stayed cool with the windows rolled up! Still remember that new car smell. Ahhh!

I knew we were nearing Salt Lake City when we saw those Barbasol signs spaced every quarter mile or so:

Dim your lights
Behind a car
Let folks see
How bright YOU are
BurmaShave

Another summer I spent in So. Pasadena with my niece (approx. same age). We swam every single day in the apt. pool, then cleaned out the fridge cause we were Starving! I remember my brother (18 yrs older than me) complaining that they kept running out of food!

The majority of Australians mostly did (and still frequently do) spend their summers near the water. With us living on a big island almost everything in the summer is water orientated, and most people head to the beach, the lakes or our rivers.

Lots of people have beach or lakeside houses, and many have boats. There are stacks of boating activities like ocean, lake or river fishing, plus all the water sports like scuba diving, snorkelling, rowing, and water skiing, etc.

I left home at 17 to start my nursing training, and back then it was compulsory to live in the nurse's quarters until you finished your course, but before that I had to pick fruit to earn any money. Mostly it was apples, or berry fruit like raspberries and red currants. I also picked beans when they were in season.

It really was hard work, and that would have been the time I first got introduced to back pain! :( It certainly didn't pay well, but it was about all my parents would agree to until I went nursing. (The age of consent was 21 back in those days).

My summers were spent playing and playing hard. There was so much to be done in the woods; forts to build, paths to be made, ponds and creeks to play in, fish to try to catch with our bare hands, plants to look at and find, and skunks to avoid. LOL

In the "hood" there was so many fun games to be played, traditional ones as well as made up ones, and all the neighborhood kids would be out playing. We rode our bikes, walked, or ran all over the place.

It was very rare that we ever went on a "vacation" away from home. But I will say that my parents amaze me. One summer, 1969????, my ambitious parents decided to take a camping trip from NY to NM with 9 kids (the youngest wasn't born yet) all of us under the age of 10. My dad modified our VW microbus and put in a storage bench. They loaded up all the equipment, tents, sleeping bags, cooking utensils, etc., playpen in the back for the wee little ones, loaded up us kids, and off to NM we went.

To this day, they laugh about the adventures and thing that happened along the way including one campground flooding during the middle of the night and my mom and dad getting all us kids in the microbus and taking down the tent and loading everything up. I remember waking up in the microbus and my dad in a bad mood. LOL

Of course, on the way home, the microbus broke down outside of Des Moines, Iowa. In my 4-year old mind, I thought we were just going to die in the middle of nowhere and was worried about my dad as he and one of my brothers went with a STRANGER to get help. We somehow got towed in to Des Moines, the microbus got fixed, and my frustrated dad drove straight through the day and night home to NY.