When I was a kid, the best thing about summer was....

[Irish Beth]

The thrill of the cold salt water after the hot of the beach sand.

What was your favorite part of summer????

[gisli]

Climbing high cliffs and exploring caves in the lava not far away from my home, guess I was a adrenalin addict. Walking and running around in the nature.....alone.......daydreaming I was captain Kirk or someone else who had a day or so to save the world..........again.

[marjan]

We lived close to the beach and my mom, me and my aunt and neith regulary took the train to the beach. The first and most embarrising memory I have of that trips is me in a bading suit nitted from wool by my mom. It was green/yellow striped and when I got out of the water it was hanging somewhere around my knees. I have pictures to proof it, I will look at it asap and scan it in and post them :D

[DaveM]

Though I lived in the suburbs until I was 13, we were on the edge of them. There were still farms within walking distance, a large vacant area with an abandoned house set among tangled willow trees (could any kid ask for a better toy?), and a park with a pond I used to spend hours at catching crayfish and mud puppies.

I recall wandering one of the vacant areas and coming upon nesting pheasants....fascinating.

It was a different world. By the time my family left the area in 1977, the "haunted house" had been torn down and the area cleared to make room for several new houses. Only one of the farms remained. The park had been pretty much taken over by drug dealers, and going there was no longer entirely safe.

Still I remember the pond and the "neat stuff" we found on the overgrown area around the old house. The tree forts, the attempts to learn to throw a boomerang (one of which put said boomerang through a neighbor's upstairs window screen), the crayfish and the mud puppies and two horses that would come up to the fence and eat apples out of my hand. In the world of "zero tolerance" and "Amber alerts", I fear that today's children are missing out on things of that sort. Their lives are smaller for it, and I feel for them.

[SongDragon]

The best part of summer...

Camp! I don't mean a summer camp, I mean two houses in New Hampshire called Swan and Lexington that my family calls, collectively, Camp. The houses rest on the edge of the lake, nestled among pine needles and in the shadow of many trees. The lake is beautifully cool, even during the hottest parts of summer.

There is a rope swing, recently discovered by the older kids, just a boat ride away. On our lake the movie "On Golden Pond" was filmed, directors stayed at Camp and at Uncle Jim's Guest House down the road. Our road is a private road, and kids ride up and down it on bikes. Also on the lake is a huge rock, thirteen feet up, which you can jump off of and land in one of the deepest parts of the lake. The whale rock is across the channel, just barely submerged...

It is impossible to explain how I feel about all of these aspects that make up my summer stays at Camp. Suffice it to say that Camp is the best part of summer.

~Song

[Amy in Vermont]

For me it was summer camp. From the time I was 4, summers were for camp. Day Camp ( Camp Chesterbrook ) at 4, 5 & 6. Sleep away camp, 8 weeks each summer, from 7 to 14, the first 5 years at Camp Lenore, the last 3 at Forest Acres.

I loved camp. My camp experiences played a large part in shaping who I am today. I miss camp. I want to be a kid again and go back to camp. Why can't we have camp for growed ups?

[AceOn6]

Oooo. So many things to love about summer. Having the windows open all the time. Fresh fruit salad. Trying to figure out a way to duck out of the office early on Friday afternoon and then realizing that everyone else has already left!

I can't wait. According to the weather guessers, we have at least 10 more days of cold, wet weather to get through before we'll be back on the path to summer again.

[AceOn6]

On our lake the movie "On Golden Pond" was filmed, directors stayed at Camp and at Uncle Jim's Guest House down the road.

So you're at Squam? My uncles's "camp" is on Winnepesaukee at Wolfboro. The only thing campy about it is the dirt road. I wish my house was as nice.

[Dar]

one of the best parts of summer for me was riding my bike everywhere. :D

and eating ice cream, often at the same time.

[Des]

Running naked through the sprinkler - as it whispered 'shimmer' on the haze of summer lawns.

[KarenSews2]

We would go to a VERY large pool called Longacre on the south side of Indy. I could smell the chlorine before I could see the pool. There was a grassy hill on one side of the pool, sand and concrete on the other. The deep end alone was bigger than most pools today. 5 diving boards; 20 ft., 2 10 ft, 5 ft and a 3 ft. springboard. Can you imagine the liability insurance for a place like that if it were open today?

It seems that as you get older, things that seemed large as a kid were really not that big. Some time before the pool closed and became a trailer park (still called Longacre), I got a chance to see the pool again, and it was just as big as I remembered. As a kid, I took for granted its size. As an adult, I was amazed that it really was huge.

I still love swimming pools, and I'm campaigning for one in our next home.

[Gigglepottomus]

Sleeping late, waking to the sound of lawn mowers and the smell of fresh cut grass.

[leslie]

NO SCHOOL!!!

And like Amy, I loved camp! For me it was Camp Sloane, in Lakeville, CT.

Leslie

[Kathleen Brogan]

Waiting for the icecream man!

[GodSistah]

Gotta agree with Leslie: NO SCHOOL!!!

~Andrea~

[Pesky]

I used to love to sit on my banana seat, a second shirt on, no hands. Shirt unbuttoned, so it swept up behind me in the breeze. What breeze? It was Texas! At some point it stopped being a cape and just became butch. I think I was nine. My favorite song was "Band of Gold" by Frieda Payne. Always loved that name.

Glad I outgrew it. Yeah right.
Pesky

[Agnes]

Early (and I mean early!) morning walks through the forest, climbing trees, jumping over ponds, playing soccer in the fields while cows and sheep were digesting :) Running through the sprinkler too, my dog trying to catch me and bump me over until he discovered the WATER and jump in it (yes, I had to clean him myself). So many wonderful memories... Nice thread, this! :)

[SFBill]

I'm a teacher
so I still get those lovely long summers to just be me--have my own time--and do nothing if I feel like---delicious!

[dutchcloggie]

I really enjoyed having a newspaper round early in the morning (I mean 5am-kind of early) in the summer. Everyone still asleep and me on my bike, in shorts, still slightly chilly outside but witnessing the world waking up to another wonderful warm day.

The peace and quiet of those mornings was lovely.

When I was much younger, the arrival of the Marble Season (Knikkertijd for Dutch People), was always exciting. At school, around April/May, suddenly kids would start bringing their marbles to school, to play with them in the playground. And for a few weeks, it would be the only game played in the playground. It really signalled the arrival of Spring/Summer. If you brought them to school with you in December, people would laugh at you for being stupid and out of touch.

You never knew who sort of started it off when April came around. But it came around every year, without fail.

Nothing quite matched the excitement of that time.

http://www.spreekbeurten.info/knikkerh1.jpg

[NinasSpaceChild]

Lying in to woods listening to the sound of the breeze rustling through the leaves.

Thunderstorms at night listened to from my bed.

Trips to Blackpool and Southport.

Ice Creams and Candyfloss.

Friends.

[Manchester]

Like others, the ice cream man was a much loved summertime treat. Visits to the pleasure beach (fair) at Blackpool and beaches at Lytham St Annes, both about 50 minutes of "are we nearly there yet" away from home.

Long days which were always sunny, and lasted twice the time they do now.... didn't they? Rope swings in the woods, daisy chains, dirty knees. Bliss.

Song, your 'Camp' sounds perfect, I love that film On Golden Pond.

Anne

[folkrocks]

Mom used to take us to the town swimming pool when I was a kid. I had lots of fun being there, learning to swim, being with my best friends and later becoming a life guard. Those were the best of times.:)

[Eva]

A lovely thread indeed!

The most beautiful thing about summer was Hungary. Everything was wonderful. Where shall I start? The exciting period just before we were going, the moment that we finally went. Sleeping in a hotel in Austria and eating all my favourite austrian foods. Maybe staying there some days more and take walks in the hills.

Arriving in Hungary. Seeing the landscape and architecture change to something familiar that I love a lot. Seeing my family again who were all very kind to me. I always felt welcome. Eating Hungarian desserts and pastry. Seeing my grandparents who I had missed all year. Playing with their dog. Seeing my best friend Gabi. His grandmother was a neighbour of my grandmother. We were always together.

Not wearing shoes for three weeks. Hardly wearing anything else than a bikini. My grandparents lived (grandma still does) 100 metres away from a sidebranch of the Danube. So we spent a lot of time swimming and playing on the beach. Also there was an old shipyard there. We played Onedin Line on board of the rusty ships that weren't used anymore.

All the kids of several ages (3 - 18) were free from school and everyone was together. The bigger ones looked after the smaller ones. I got carried around a lot on big boy's shoulders when I was small. And later we looked after the smaller children together.

Beautiful summers. :D

Eva

[AceOn6]

Duh, I typed too soon and missed the intent of the thread.

The best part of my summers (other than the Good Humor man) was being able to go whenever and whereever I wanted on my bike. I'd put 10 miles on almost every day, just exploring our small city with friends. From the time I learned to ride until I was 14, I had full control of my day from about 9 a.m. until suppertime.

The other best part was the municipal swimming pool. As soon as I turned 8, I could go for the entire day for 5 cents. I'd come home white and wrinkly. I still have my pool towel... a large beach towel with a turquoise seahorse on it. It's with other keepsakes in my great-grandfather's steamer trunk.

[RedjackRyan]

Waking up early, quick breakfast, then heading down into the garage to get the dirtbike ready. I'd hook up with three friends and we'd spend most of the day blasting through the trails and mud bogs on our bikes. Sometimes we'd pack a lunch and eat back in the trails, other times we'd run the 'forbidden' trail that ran 'longside the county airport runway and head to burger king. Sometimes the airport cops would chase us, sometimes not..

After a full day of riding, we'd be covered in mud head to toe, reeking of sweat, oil, and whatever else we had ridden through. we'd come back and collapse on my driveway and hose down ourselves and the bikes. Thats what i miss most about summer.. just having a good time with friends.

[folkrocks]

Hey Bill,
I'm a teacher also and I love gettting our for the summer as well as those long Christmas and Spring vacations.

[mixtymotions]

Going to Gramma & Grampa's farm.
Catching fireflies in a jar.
Campfire ghost stories.
Chasing the ice cream truck - I think he enjoyed making us chase him.
The city swimming pool, the swimming hole with the rope swing, the inflatable pool on the patio, and when the inflatable finally had too many leaks to be usable - running through the sprinklers.
Ringing my bicycle bell as I whizzed around the neighborhoods.
Lying on my back in the grass, chewing on clover or a large stalk of grass.
Picking blackberries.
Searching the ditches for salamanders.
Flipping over rocks in the creeks, searching for crawdads.
Big wedges of ice cold watermelon.

[Eva]

Inflateable... yes... I think PA Randy has some good memories there too... :D

I had an inflateable boat which my friend and me carried to the water when we got older. We would sunbathe in it and just joke a lot. We would bring it up the stream and then let the water carry us down again. Or swim behind it quite long distances if there were too many people in it. We didn't need a watch. At noon the churchbells would ring and we knew it was time to go home and eat. In the evening we would go home if it would start to get darker. That would be around eight, I guess.

Having boys fight over me was also very enjoyable. I loved the attention. I knew then there was a purpose to it that my second name is Helena... :rolleyes:

Eva

[SongDragon]

Aceon, there was nothing "campy" about ours either. Claw-footed tubs, working showers and toilets. One of them is even winterized sufficiently! I don't really know why it's called Camp, except that it used to only be one house, with that rich pine smell making us feel as though we were far away and didn't have to worry about anything. No pets (except one dog who was constantly getting herself lost and refound, and one cat who was fed up with the family, the sourpuss) ever ran away from Camp. For a while there, dogs weren't allowed up at Camp. Now they are, on occasion, because Grandma couldn't bear to leave our rambunctious Holly behind. She had never been allowed to really run loose before (until we got invisible fencing), but she absolutely loved it, and never went too far away. Great place for animals and kids.

This quote is over the doorway to the family room: "Thou Shalt Not Bring Thy Worries Aboard"

~Song

[Denise]

I also went to "camp" every summer. My grandparents owned a small cottage on a lake in Maine. Over the years they added on more and more until it became their home when they retired. It was a beautiful spot. The day after school got out in my native Massachusetts, we were off to camp for the summer and we returned the day before school started again.
I spent my summers barefoot, swimming, waterskiing, playing "spin-the-bottle" for the very first time and getting my first kiss.....
I didn't realize how lucky I was to have that place until it was gone.
After over 40 years in our family, my parents were forced to sell the "camp" about 9 years ago, due to the increase in taxes...and them being on a limited retirement income. They sold it for $195,000 and recently we found out that if it went on the market today, it would easily sell for $800,000 + ... :(
But I have my memories and LOTS of pictures!
Now I love summer just because I have a job where I can take the whole damn summer off if I want to!!!! 25 more days - yee haa!!!!

[Dougster]

Growing up in Southern California it would get hot. We would run through the sprinkler or play "sock it to me" (throwing buckets of water at one another) as Judy Carne used to take on "Laugh In". When you got too cold, you ran to a dry spot on the concrete sidewalk and laid out flat. The heated concrete would warm you through and through, and you were ready for several more buckets or the sprinklers again.

[Gigglepottomus]

All these camp stories make me want to share my one time camp experience. When I was like 9 my best friends father was a Baptist minister and he was going to church camp for 2 weeks. He persuaded his father to take me along. There was not really much camp to the place. We went to church three times a day ate and slept. The first few days I shocked the counselors ministers and campers by continuously unleashing a vocabulary of curse words that would make a sailor blush. By the end of the week I got into a fight with another kid. They told me it was the first fight in the camps history. At the beginning of the second week I snuck out of the cabin at night and broke into the camps soda machine with a crow bar then hid the evidence under my bunk. LOL They quickly found it and I was face to face with a minister who thought I was the spawn of Satan. His guilt trip did not take and I continued my reign of terror until the last day of camp. It was the final service of the day and they were bringing people up to the front to be saved. Oh my lord I felt the spirit and made my way to the front as everyone stood astonished to see me walking forward now IM down on my knees and the minister is practically screaming the prayer like he was trying to exercise the devil out of me. DO YOU EXCEPT JESUS CHRIST IN YOUR HEART!!! YES YES I DO ! I start breaking down and tears are streaming down my face I can hear people behind me shouting PRAISE GOD! and stuff like that So I turned and looked through my tears to see over half of the people there were crying with me. Then I turn back to the minister and he had tears welling in his eyes. Well, I went home the next day convinced I had turned over a new leaf in life but it only lasted two days before I was back raising hell. Incidentally I was never invited back.

[Bat]

Well Done, Giggles!

[DaveM]

As another who is utterly beyond redemption, I salute you, Giggles.

[Eva]

Oh Giggles, those poor people! But I couldn't stop laughing anyway...!

Eva

[hoops]

The Grass Between My Toes

[Bat]

Too funny, Giggles...and my mother called ME a heathen!! :D

[saxman]

the best thing about summer was that i didnt have school but i would attend classes and learn if i had a second chance . i would pay attencion if i had it all to do over. and make something of my tallent . that is what i would do., so anyone that has a chance to learn? do it.

[Eva]

My greatgrandaunt's milkshakes! When the days became warmer she made all of us kids strawberrymilkshakes with fresh strawberries, vanilla icecream, milk & sugar. And a lot of love. The best milkshakes I have ever tasted.

She lived a few doors away from us when I was young. She was kind of like a grandmother to me. She was my grandfathers' sister and came to the Netherlands in the 1930's. Unfortunately she died a few years ago. She was 90 and weakened by some nasty virus. I miss her.

Eva

[snakegrl]

Being out of that damn stuffy school room, watching lightning bugs fill the twilight sky, the inbetween time. That felt like magic.

[Melba]

Giggles, you bad boy.....LOL

I would have to say the best things about summer were being out of school, being out in the sun all day (we were never couch potato kids watching tv) and riding my bike with my best friend. I was always riding my bike somewhere. Come to think if it, maybe I should take that up again....could stand to get in a little better shape....:D

[soulMerlin]

scrabbling his fingers through the sand at his first visit to Seaburn (near sunderland PetCC) I don't know where he is now - and I don't even know if he's still alive, it's so many years...but the memory stays, like a little snapshot in my head.

h.