Summertime

Summertime always brings wonderful memories of childhood days gone by. Today at worked I watched as two little girls played together in the hallway and got to giggling so hard they both nearly fell over.

I miss laughing like that. It has been too long since I have done that. The closest I have come to it anytime recent is when I’ve been a bit on the tipsy side and in my book that doesn’t quite cut it; it’s just not the same.

When I was a kid I used every bit of my imagination I could. One of my funniest memories is when one of my best friends Ashley and I would get my grandmothers old tea set out put Sunkist pop in it and pretend we were drinking “beer”. We then would take turns saying funny things and acting like we’d imbibed a bit too much. By the time it was all over we would be laughing so hard we could barely breathe.

Ashley and I would have many adventures over the summertime. My Grandma lived a few hours away in a very small town with dirt roads. We would spend our days playing cops and robbers on our bikes, throwing dolls and water balloons off of the top deck to see what would happen, sucking on Honeysuckle blooms and walking in the muddy streets after a good rain. Also if we were lucky her older brothers would take a break from teasing us long enough to play a game of baseball with us using a tennis ball and tennis racket…home runs are much easier to hit that way.

Back during those summers my Dad would also take me fishing down at the little town lake. I always threw the fish that I caught back in, mostly in part because I never caught anything worth keeping, but also because I just enjoyed being out there. It was always so calm and peaceful and always got a big laugh out of the odd things my Dad would catch on his line…old boots/shoes, driftwood and snapping turtles. I always enjoyed him catching the turtles the most, I love animals and was fascinated to see one up close. I loved turtles and would take care of the various box turtles that would make a pit stop in Grandma’s yard on their way down to the lake.

Those summer days have long since gone, but in some ways I’m slowly being able to relive some of it through Little Guy and Lily. I have been trying to make it a point to just enjoy everyday and not stress about time and silly things that don’t really matter in the long run. I guess you can say I am trying to recapture my younger youth.