Summer Memories ... add yours!

[CountryWolf07]

My grandparents' old house.

My grandma will be gone for 9 years next month. Amazing how time flies by so fast... I hold so many memories close to my heart when I was a little kid at that house they used to live in.

[RICHARD]

GRANDMA'S HOUSE!

Got to spend most of the summers there. Dad would drop me off-he worked around the corner at the brickyard! That woman had a green thumb.

There was pomegranates, grapes, avocados, peaches, figs, plums squash, spearmint, morning glories, bird of paradise, african violets and god knows what else growing there!

That was a blast!

[DJFyrewolf36]

When I was younger, Grandmas house was always a lot of fun.
My fondest memory of summer though is just being outside. My parents went out into the wilderness alot to camp and fish and I just loved to walk around and observe nature. Its something I still like to do even now
I've gone to a lot of outdoor campout parties and those are always fun. Enjoying music under the stars with a group of friends and sharing experiences is something I really enjoy.

[krazyaboutkatz]

When I lived in S.C. we used to go to Hunting Island every year during the week of July 4th. It was always a lot of fun because we stayed in a cottage on the private part of the beach. My 2 brothers and I would spend most of the day at the beach and they'd fish while my dad and I would go crabbing in the channel. I also found many beautiful sea shells. We would also hand feed some racoons every night but we had to make sure that we didn't leave any food out on the screened in porch.

I also liked catching fire flies or lightning bugs as we used to call them. We did this every summer at home. We also caught a lot of frogs and toads because we lived across from a lake. We fished out of the lake too. As you can tell I was a tomboy.

We also had a community pool and tennis court in my neighborhood and by day I would be at the pool and some evenings I would play tennis.

[BitsyNaceyDog]

My favorite summer memories all involve boats and water! We lived in upstate New York when I was a kid. We had a boat and took it out every chance we could. My dad and Uncle Jim rented a cottage (the same cottage every year) for 3 weeks every summer at Sodas Point (on Lake Ontario). We would fish off the dock, go swimming at the sandbar, go swimming off the dock, and just cruise around in the boat. Every night my dad would walk us down to the little ice cream shop to get ice cream. We always knew where we were going but my dad would simply say "who wants to go for a walk?" Then when we got down to the corner (where the ice cream shop was) he'd say "I'm running on empty, I needs some gas (or sometimes steam) to get me back home." The ice cream was the gas to get us back home.

When my dad was working and we weren't out in the boat with him my mom would take us to our friends' house on another lake. It was over an hour from our house so we'd usually spend a night or 2 there nearly every week.

[Medusa]

Something that I should've included in my summer memories is walks w/my son when he was a little boy of age 3. We'd go to the woods nearby our house and just sit and watch. One time I told him to observe how many fairies and gnomes he could see. After a few minutes, he'd exclaim "I saw one, Mom! I saw one!" and he point and say "There it is, look!" It was just our secret; we didn't even share it w/his father because we knew he'd make fun of us. When we lived in Hampton, VA, (he was still in diapers then) we lived directly across the street from Chesapeake Bay and we'd take daily walks when the tide was out and we'd have to hop, skip and jump to keep from stepping on the jellyfish. I wanted him to see the magic in everything. During the holidays, the ships would be decorated w/colorful lights and they would reflect on the water at night. It was such a magical time.

[RICHARD]

Every summer we'd head up the coast from El Lay to a state beach/campground called Leo Carrillo

There are tons of squirrels in the area. Very brazen, very mischevious.

I was there with my dad and GF for a few days. During this trip I asked my dad if he wanted to go for walk-we'd take some sandwiches and find a spot on the sand. "Nope", he wanted to sit down and enjoy some alone time at the campsite.

I fixed him up some lunch and left on a little jaunt.

When we came back about 20 minutes later I saw my dad giving the squirrels some food.

He was passed out cold-he was at the age where he'd get nap attacks often-so I wasn't surprised! He managed to hold onto the plate but some food had fallen to the dirt.

He had about 10 squirrels around him. One was on his knee eating out of the paper plate, a few more were munching on the spilled potato chips and the rest were chittering on the table next to his folding chair.

Right at that moment he jerked awake and saw what was going on about him.
As his lunch guests scattered he got the biggest grin on his face and started to laugh.

He looked over to where we were and began to laugh harder. It was like we had caught him doing something wrong, I saw the little boy in my dad that I had never seen before.

I walked up and asked him, "What happened?" By this time we were all giggling like fools. We got pops a new sandwich and spent the rest of the day fending off squirrels that thought they had an open ended invite for lunch and dinner.

It was the last time he went camping at the beach and the one that I'll cherish the most.

[Pembroke_Corgi]

When I was young we lived near the Appalachian Mountains in the country. There were several acres of woods behind our house. We would all go walking in the woods which were always beautiful. My sweet cat Yogi, who I still miss, would also walk with us. We also had a fruit orchard on our property and my dad would mow "rooms" in the grass there so I could play. I remember playing outside for hours and hours.

I also loved the sleepovers with my friends during the summer. We'd always stay up WAY too late, but somehow it would seem like the most profound discoveries were always made past midnight.