Summer’s Child

“August is like the Sunday of summer.” ~ Unknown

I love the warmth of summer. In every August of my adult life, it’s the feelings of simply being a kid that I so enjoy remembering. Youth was a bittersweet time of my life, yet what I recall was marvelously magical and leisure-filled. Here’s just a few things I remember from the summer days of my childhood:

• Swinging on gnarly vines hanging from trees over the stream, just trying to hold on.
• Pulling a red wagon full of newborn kittens through our wooded suburban neighborhood.
• The annual delivery of bottles of homemade root beer and jars of bread and butter pickles from our neighbor.
• Going to the YMCA for a lesson on painting with pastels. The classroom was the outdoors.
• Running all over the lawn catching grasshoppers and lightning bugs.
• Bare toes in the dewy grass first thing in the morning.
• Peach cake season in Baltimore!
• The picnic table spread with newspapers. Steamed crabs heaped high!
• Listening to the “Os” baseball game with my Grandfather on the crackly transistor radio.
• Croquette and badminton games with my brothers and sister.
• Swan dives, cannon-balls and laps in the swimming pool.

What do you remember about the summers of your childhood that brings a big smile to your face? Take time to ponder it! It is guaranteed to lift your spirits.

“Blowing Bubbles” by Frankie Picasso