Hi friends and Happy Wednesday!
I hope you’re having a good week and a good start to your summer. Like me, you have probably heard of the “lazy days of summer.” I love the saying, but I don’t think most summers are lazy. At least not around here now, and in retrospect, not when I was a kid either.
As kids, how many of you spent your summer with your friends running through the woods, building forts, playing kick the can, swimming, running through sprinklers, and riding bikes. Just reading that last brings back so many memories.
My family and I lived in a community called Wolf Trap Woods. It encompassed the Wolf Trap Center for Performing Arts (I believe now it’s a National Park for the Performing Arts) and as kids, we’d run through the woods over there and it being an outdoor amphitheater, we’d play on the stage, and attend kid craft days.
On the other side of our neighborhood sat the National Wildlife Federation so we’d ride our bikes as far as we could within our neighborhood and then hike through the woods once again to head into the building and buy things out of the cafeteria vending machines. We’d take time to view the nature center while we were there. There was just something special about putting change into a vending machine, pulling the knob, and watching your treat tumble down.
After we were done running for a while, we’d take a popsicle break. You know the kind where you pour juice or, if we were lucky, Kool-Aid into the holder and then put the red-handled sticks in and freeze them. We’d pop them out with a little help from running them under hot water. We’d sit out on the lawn and eat our creation, then fully fueled (there might have been a pjb in there), and we’d take off for the rest of the day.
In the evening we’d watch fireflies and play flashlight tag and wouldn’t head home until the parents at the closest house near us would call out and tell us it was time to go home. I loved those days. Loved the smell of clover on our lawns, the scent of moss and timber of the woods, and the cool creek rippling over our toes.
Summer these days look different, but not so different. We’ve got the joy of spending time with our grandkids between their trips back home and our trips down to visit them in Florida. We spent the days outside, staying out until nightfall most of the time. We swam in pools, played at waterparks, and watch the sunset from the beach.
We attended baseball games, played at playgrounds, and spent lots of time outside just having fun.
Summer is a lot of fun, but I don’t find it lazy. But it’s a different kind of “busy.” It’s the fun kind that lets you move at your own pace, enjoy things in the moment, and when you do get that popsicle slow-down break, it feels great ☺
I hope you’re enjoying your summer and getting some days to just spend as you’d like. Maybe it’s on a porch swing watching the fireflies, maybe it’s spent gardening, or hopefully at least relaxing on the weekend. However, you’re spending your summer, I pray it’s a good one.
Reader Question:
What was your favorite summer activity to do as a kid? Can’t wait to hear your answers.
Best,
Dani
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Wow, I just added a new place to my bucket list, Dani! Wolf Trap sounds amazing! My childhood summers growing up on a farm in Kansas were similar to yours in a lot of ways—riding bikes, exploring the countryside, popsicles, catching fireflies in jars, playing outside with friends until our parents called us in. Sadly, the older I’ve gotten the more summer is my least favorite season. (I just HATE being hot so I always kind of feel trapped inside during the hottest months!) Alas, I’m spending this summer on deadline, but you’ve made me stop and appreciate some of the great things about summertime. I just added popsicles to the grocery list! 🙂
Awww. I loved catching fireflies. Such a fun memory. I love that you enjoyed the post and that you added popsicles to your grocery list 🙂
Awww. I loved catching fireflies. Such a fun memory. I’m so thrilled you enjoyed the post and love that you added popsicles to your grocery list. Enjoy 🙂
As a kid my summer sounds a lot like yours. We were always outside-my favorite place. My kids also had that experience. I feel sorry for my grandkids with their organized activities supervised at all times by adults. Freedom is the word I would use for my experience. We delight in taking the grandkids camping and letting them experience a bit of that fishing, hiking, exploring freedom.
I know. Things are often so different now for our grandchildren. Love that you take them camping and let them explore. I’m sure those will be treasured memories for them.
As a city girl with three houses in a row on our block containing young ones, our parents would load us up in a car and drive us to the nearest ice cream store for an ice cream cone. We’d ride bicycles in our neighborhood and play in an overgrown lot pretending it was woods. Then there are fond memories of our rollerskating on the sidewalk of our block. We did play lots of outdoor games in the evenings–Mother May I, Kick the Can, Hide and Seek, etc. We did have a good time in the summer.
What a beautiful, reminiscent post, Dani. A summer favorite for me as a child was riding bikes back into an area of the woods in our neighborhood that had trails and creeks and hills and fun hiding places. A friend and I, Anita Salay, I haven’t thought of her in years, would also gather glass bottles that people had thrown out along the side of the road, then we would go cash them in at a local market and buy candy with our small treasure. Gracious, that was another lifetime ago. Then in the evening we would all play kickball in the cul-de-sac in front of our house. I loved growing up in a house on a cul-de-sac.
Such a fun post! I’m from the generation that was kicked outside after lunch and told not to come home until the street light came on! So my bike and I rode all over town to find friends to hang out with. I’m not sure what we did but we did it all day! LOL!
I lived directly across the street from the school I attended and would play on the playground all summer long.
Sweet pictures of you and the grandboys!!
Almost every summer, we took a long road trip to visit either my mom’s or my dad’s parents. It was magical. Long days full of sunshine, laughter, and cousins! The best part was the time with cousins. Now we do the same for our kids, and they would agree cousin time is the best time ever!
4H club & projects
Sleeping outside in a tent
My cousins coming to stay
Fishing with my Grandpa in the creek by his house in a small town in North Dakota.
Summers of my childhood were bike rides, running through the hose, lake days, 4h sheep projects, family reunions, laying on the grass making shapes out of clouds, long summer nights with night games ( sardines, no bears are out tonight) popsicles (grape and root beer we’re my two favorite flavors), days in the hat field. It always seemed to last forever.
I spent summers riding my bike, laying out on a float with my friend at Chickamauga Lake (aka the Tennessee River), visiting the community pool, eating homemade ice cream and watermelon, going barefoot and getting stung by bees, chasing fireflies and collecting them in a jar, staying up late watching scary movies and eating popcorn. So many great memories! Thanks for the opportunity to reminisce.