Our Childhood Summers

[braided-rug]

My childhood summers centred around the swimming hole I think. I got on my bike and rode over there. I stayed there most of the day, or it seemed like it. We took tires sometimes to sit in. Sometimes there was a rope swing. Sometimes I watched yabby claws shining white from the old bridge.

Other times I rode home with the tobacco pickers with the tobacco. There were always about three large watermelons to eat on the way home.

Coming home always meant riding through Mum's sprinklers, they were always on.

Please share your childhood summers.

[lynn]

Let's seeeeeee.......making mud pies and lettin them dry. Pretending to eat them! Ahhhahha those were just preppin' me for all that cooking I do now!

softball with the neighbor kids, and then playing in the sandbox

cooling off in the pool

headin' out to the produce patch with my mom and dad to pick fresh fruits and veggies

making homemade ice cream

chasing lightning bugs at dusk and filling a quart jar with them! My sister and I would take the jars in our bedrooms and lay on the bed and watch them light up.

swinging on a tire swing

riding our bikes

going to spend a few days in the country with Grandma. She let us putter in the kitchen, took us fishing and down to the little country store for ice cold sodas and candy necklaces.

Curling up near the air conditioner with a good book in the heat of the afternoon.

Those are my fondest memories.

Great thread BR. hugs and chocolate to you!!

[braided-rug]

We have a book about Sam the firefly. I haven't seen any though, I would love to do that!

Did you have those little candy hearts with words on them?

My cousin was the mud pie queen! Her neighbour gave her things to play with that she didn't need in her kitchen anymore.

The neighbourhood kids came to play soccer sometimes.

[lynn]

Oh yes, we have those candy hearts, but mostly I only see them for Valentines Day.

You know we had all kinds of candies that I don't see any more. We had wax lips in funky shapes and sizes. We loved those. And big Charms lollipops. My favorite was the blue kind. I got the spanking of my life when I was about 6 for sharing one of those with our dog! lol

And you know, I haven't seen any fireflies in years. We went to North Carolina a few years ago on vacation and that was the first time I have seen any in a long time!

[sunshine]

We also collected fireflies!

My older brother would build my sister and I houses of straw bales in the hayloft-- we'd play up there for hours!

My parents would deliberately let the grass grow in a section of the "yard" (their yard is 5 acres) and we'd mow bicycle paths in the tall grass

Every night after supper, we'd hop on the wagon, with my collie and go to the pond for a quick swim. My brother and dad built a raft and a dock---

Afternoon naps, laying on sheets and picturing things in the clouds.

Loads of work in the summers though--- huge gardens and canning, butchering chickens that had hatched in the spring, butcher rabbits and tanning the hides. . . . berry picking. . . . .

[braided-rug]

I remember picking blackberries with my Mum and Nana. That was my favorite kind of jam. There are huge ones here that DH found, I wonder if I could do it again? I am a little afraid of the snakes, but I guess I could wear good shoes and watch where I put my feet.

I love looking at the sky like that, also we had a clover patch near a shed that was nice to sit in.

We made a hay bale thing once, my cousin and I and slept in it, at least some of the night.

The canning (bottling) and rabbit hide tanning was more what I did when I was 20 onwards, although I didn't do the tanning myself.