Summer

Summer...no word in the English language puts a smile on my face faster than that particular word.  When I was a little girl Summer was magic.  I always played outside, but in the Summer the days were so much longer!  I didn't have to go to bed early and the neighborhood where I lived always had a good game of hide and seek and kick ball going on after dinner.   Summer meant that my mom ALWAYS had popcycles in the freezer and a pitcher of kool-aid at the ready.  She would write the names of the kids who were playing in our yard on dixie cups and we could come to the back door for a kool-aid refill any-time.  

Summer meant daily trips to the beach.  We had a little snack bar that sold cokes, crackers, candy and Italian Ice.  I loved the cheese Lance crackers that were like cheese it's.  The cups that the cokes came in were great for making sand castles.  There were a million shiny rocks on our beach and they made the best decorations for those sand castles.  If I was really good my mom might let me rent a raft for the day, and that was great because it meant I could be in the water ALL THE TIME!  We stayed all day most days.  Mom would pack up a picnic lunch and we would camp out.  Our family sport in the summer was Olympic Beach Sitting. Mom and her friends sat around and talked and played cards and us kids played.  No worries, just fun in the sun.

 

When you got too much sun, mom slathered zinc oxide on your nose, put a t-shirt on you over your bathing suit and you either kept right on going or you sat under the beach umbrella.  Our idea of sunscreen back in those days was Coppertone suntan lotion.  There were no numbers, well maybe there were.  I think the lotion was a "4" or an "8" and the oil was a "2".  Eight was as high as they went.  Oh the smell!!  To me, that is one of the best scents!  Gosh just open a bottle of Coppertone suntan lotion and breathe in the smell of summer!  To this day, that is one of my favorite scents.  Last summer when they announced that those lower SPF's were going away I went to Walgreens and Target and bought all the number 4 I could find.  I figure when that runs out, I'll be too old to care if I wear sunscreen or not.  I sat out the other day sans sunscreen - to a kid that grew up on the beach - I don't much bother with it unless I'm someplace where I might actually get burned.  Oregon is NOT that place, neither is Washington, remember we're famous for our sparkly vampires - need I say more?! I struggle to get a tan every summer.  If I wore 15 SPF I'd look the same as I do in the winter.  Forget that.  I digress....

Back to Summer.... corn on the cob, fresh tomatoes off the vines on my back porch and berries!!  I love, love, love the fresh foods of summer.  We have a berry farm about 15 minutes from our house.  You can pick and eat as many as you want.  We love to go and pick our own.  Then Kaysie and I get busy.  We make jam.  Last summer we made three different kinds, strawberry, raspberry and marrionberry.  I only have 2 jars of marrionberry left.  That's it! As the summer goes on we wait for the cucumbers to get ripe and then we make bread and butter pickles.  Those are so good, savory, and sweet at the same time.  One of my favorite tastes of summer.  I only have one jar of those left.  

The best part of Summer for me when I was a kid was NO SCHOOL!!  Now as an adult, I love watching my own daughter laugh and play.  We stay up late, have fun canning and do craft projects.  We take trips to the beach and the Dairy Queen on Saturday nights.  Life is good in the Summer.  I am ready!