When I loved summer...

I've lived in Arizona long enough that I had forgotten I actually used to LOVE summer! The stifling heat night and day, day after day has kind of jaded my feelings about summertime. So when I came across this idea - to write a list of favorite memories from my childhood summers - I was surprised at how many sweet summer memories came up for me. {The prompt was from a newsletter I subscribe to by Chookooloonks.}

Here, in no particular order, are 10 of my favorite summertime childhood memories.

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My nephews (Cris & Tyler) and niece (Britny) ~ photo by my brother Ron

☀ No school. It's not that I disliked school, I just loved summer a whole lot more. So the first thing on my list of favorite things about summer when I was a kid? It has to be the no school part!

☀ Being barefoot. We were country kids and we were barefoot all summer long! I remember walking on the hot blacktop road to Grandma's house - feet tough enough that the hot surface felt warm but didn't really make me dance. The way it felt to step onto the cool, lush green grass, and ending each day with super dirty feet that needed a good scrubbing in the tub before bed time.

☀ Water play. With sprinklers, garden hose, wading pools, water balloons and dangling our feet into the muddy water of nearby irrigation ditches.

☀ Crawdad fishing. Our great-uncle Homer would tie a piece of meat on a string for us and we'd pull dozens of crawdads out of the muddy irrigation ditch. {I wrote a story about our crawdad fishing days and you can read that here.}

☀ The ice cream truck. Running to the sidewalk with a fist full of change, waiting for the ice cream truck to stop for us. My favorite treat was always the creamsicle pop-ups. Yum...haven't had one of those in forever...

☀ Our cousins from Chicago came to visit. For a few summers in a row, our three cousins from Chicago came to spend several weeks in California. Our grandmas were sisters and lived on the same country road, and we spent hours building forts, crawdad fishing, riding our bikes, and just having fun. When the day would come for them to go back to Chicago, my siblings and I would sob like it was the end of the world. Ahhh. Those were such fun times!

☀ Iced tea. My mom made the best, fresh brewed iced tea, and she always had a pitcher made. I remember for a while she made ice by freezing water in an empty paper milk carton. Once frozen, she'd break it up with an ice pick - stabbing several times right through the paper carton. She'd pour the crushed ice into a glass and then cover it with fresh brewed tea. Ah - such a refreshing way to cool off! {My sis and I still make tea just like our mama, though we don't do that ice part.}

☀ Bike riding. We rode our bikes all over the place back then. We lived in a small town and friends were always a bike ride away. There was such a feeling of freedom and independence, riding off on my bike to go to a friend's house. As I write these words, I'm struck by the way I miss that simple pleasure.

☀ Being hot. It seems weird to remember a time when I actually enjoyed the heat. Our home had a small evaporative cooler in one window and that was enough "back then." We slept with our windows open and didn't really complain about being too hot. Heat meant that it was SUMMER and we loved that so much!

☀ Shopping for school supplies. As much as I loved summer and the whole no-school-gig, I always loved shopping for new school clothes and supplies. The anticipation of new teachers, seeing friends, a fresh notebook and a hint of fall in the air? Awesome! And although this memory signified the end of summer, it's still one of my favorites.

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What would your list of top ten summer memories include?