Tuesday, May 22, 2018

Summer

 This is right before I was thrown in the lake.  You can tell I hated this camp.
 Random summer photo.  I felt so beautiful with my jewelry and feathered hair pulled up on one side.
 Grandma and Grandpa Little's Backyard


My kids are getting ready for summer break and everyone keeps asking what they will do for the summer.  As a working parent the stress of finding childcare for an entire summer can be very daunting.  I am lucky this year that between parents, in-laws and camps my two younger kids will not have to fend for themselves.  Sorry Liam- you are 20.  You are on your own buddy. 

I don't know about everybody else but all my summers as a kid just run together until I was about 15. It isn't a bad thing, it is just hard to remember what happened in what year.  These are some of my favorite summer things that happened every year.

Cedar Point.  For those of you who have not been, you are missing the greatest roller coasters in the world.  I haven't been in many years.  I hope that the Antique Cars and the Blue Streak are still there.

Water Works- the community pool in Cuyahoga Falls.  It seemed so big to me as a kid.

Szalay's Corn.  The best corn ever.  We may have good tomatoes here in Northeast Tennessee, but nothing tastes like Szalay's corn.  We would go pick it up in Peninsula and bring it home.  Graham and I would sit on the porch and clean it so mom could boil it.  The cob holders had a special home in the little cabinet with drawers that hung on the wall in the kitchen.  I don't remember what else lived in that cabinet, but I am calling dibs on it Graham. 

Going to Grandma's.  I would go for a week every summer.  When I got a little older I would go to the Heisey Convention as well.  We would go to Jamie's Flea Market, go bowling, go to Aunt Sis's to swim and to the Old English Parlor for ice cream.  I would hang out with Ness.  We would eat popcorn at least 3 nights a week while watching Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy.

Graham going to Grandpa's.  This was heaven.  I had the whole house to myself and didn't have to share.

Camp- at first it was daycamp with CYO.  We would ride the bus from Immaculate Heart of Mary to Camp Christopher every day.  I learned most of my camp songs there.  (Ohhhhhh, they built the ship Titanic to sail the ocean blue, and they said it was a ship that the water wouldn't go through.  It was on it's maiden trip, when the iceberg hit the ship.  It was sad when the great ship went down.  Oh it was sad, it was sad, it was sad when the great ship went down to the bottom of the, husbands and wives little children lost their lives, it was sad when the great ship went down).  Overnight camp was the best.  I went to Girls Camp at Stoney Glen, Camp Carl, and Beulah Beach.  More camp songs- Johnny Rubek's Sausage Machine, Up in the Air Junior Birdmen, Birds in the Wilderness.  The entire family would go to Boys Brigade Camp at Stoney Glen a few weeks after I went to girls camp by myself.  Dad was a counselor, Graham was a camper, Mom was the nurse and I was the poor pre-teen girl that had to spend a week at an all boys camp.  Rough Life huh.  I have two bad memories of camp.  The first is at the day camp at the YMCA.  It was horrible.  The kids were mean and all we did was swim.  The second is when I went to an Eastern Star camp one year that was just plain weird.  I am sure my memories are skewed, but I remember torches and people in white robes.  The only good thing to come out of that camp was the elbow on table song.  If you put your elbows on table they would sing -Meghan Meghan strong and able, get your elbows off the table.  This is not a horse's stable, this is a first class dining table.  Stand up, Stand Up, Won't shut up till you stand up.  - then when you stood up you had to skip around the room while they sang - Skip around the room, skip around the room.  I still sing this in my head sometimes. 

Just being a kid.  This is what I remember most.  Just playing in the neighborhood.  Kickball, Tag, Mudpies, Riding Bikes, and so on.  Entertaining ourselves.  Fighting with each other and working it out.  Climbing Trees.  Playing on the porch when it was raining.  Coming home when the streetlights came on. 


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