Thursday, July 05, 2007

Summer memories

Summer. *sigh*

When I was a kidlet that meant bare feet, popsicles and playing til dark. Playing til dark meant 10 o'clock.

Deliscious.

I'd pull down my shorts ever so slowly so that they sat looking like eye glass rims, two gaping leg holes so that I could jump out of bed in the morning, sling aside my nightgown and jump right into those two holes and pull up those shorts as fast as I could. I'd lay my t-shirt or tank top neatly above them so I could grab and slither into it as fast as my arms could manage.
Running down the stairs ever so lightly so as not to make a creak and then out the door.
Trying not to slam that ol wooden screen door behind me.

We had chores when I was a kid.

You dont hear of that too much now a days. But. oh lordy the list of chores my Mom could conjure up fast like was incredible.

We had 2 large gardens with lots of weeds. I'd say we had more weeds than plants but my folks beg to differ. We had to do 2 rows a day. Two long rows that could take hours. Then feeding the animals, then yard chores and then the dreaded inside chores. Chores in summer take a zillion times longer. Or at least they felt that way.

But oh! Oh the sweet luxury of being hot and sweaty and then Mom hollering she was loading up to go to the slough. Whahooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Nowadays if I told my son he was going swimming in a muddy slough with bloodsuckers he'd look at me with horror and run the other way. Back in the day, man oh man was it luxury. Ridin in the back of the pickup with the dog. Wind whippin in your face. Diving in and racing to the platform somone built a bazillion years ago and crawling up panting like the dog back at the beach barking.

Yup, sweet luxury.

Our dog though. Our dog though, was something during swimming season.

He didnt like swimming. Huh UH! He'd holler and bark and moan and howl and then swim out and grab us by the swim suit and paddle his heart out getting us to shore.
We started leaving him home locked in the basement just to save him from all that lost energy. One time he broke my swim suit strap "saving" me and that made me madder than heck.

I shore do miss them good ol summer days.

Now its water parks and swimming pools and "play dates". *sigh* It is against the law to ride in the back of a pickup and if you bring your dog anywhere with out a leash you'd better be prepared to pay a fine.

*sigh*

Remember watermelon seed spitting contests? Yeah right. Now they dont have any watermelons on the market with seeds. Can you imagine? Whats a picnic without some seed spittin?

*sigh*

What else am I missing.?

I miss sittin outside talkin after the sun went down. My folks and Grandfolks used to get out the lawn chairs, not plastic chairs but good ol metal lawn charis with green webbing and sit outside talkin and telling stories and eatin and spittin and firguring out who was going to drive for Saturdays fishin.

FISHING!!! *sigh* oh I miss fishing.

Lordy do I miss the good ol days today or what??

I'll tell you why. My day was a lazy city summer day today off from work.
I got in the pool, watched a movie I rented from Hollywood video a week ago and never got a chance to see and then took my son to Starbucks on the way to pick up my truck from getting repaired. No popsicles, no slough fun and certainly no seed spittin involved. We sat in air conditioned car, air conditioned auto service dept and then drank a $5. prepared drink. I dissappointed myself today.

*sigh*