Last Tuesday was officially the last day of summer. Of all the stories I've posted here a good deal of them were about my childhood summers. That's because summer always had a magic all its own; summer was a season to shed most of our clothes, and as many inhibitions as we could get away with, and indulge ourselves in the pure joy of youthful freedom.
Whether it was a trip to the beach, or a campout, or just roasting weenies and assembling s'mores in the backyard, summer was an excuse for us to resort to our heathenism....riding Honda 50's up the hills of Morro Bay, making out at a Drive-In Movie, or just listening to Percy Sledge croon "When A Man Loves A Woman" as we picked grapes or peaches from that little Japanese transistor that you kept handy for just the occasion....that was summer too!
Never mind the calendar! Summer came on the last day of school, and on that first morning when you wandered out into the yard and squished the green grass between your toes and listened to a bat smacking a ball or the swish of a sling shot toward a horde of sparrows feeding on your cumquats, or the busy buzz of the lawn mower down the street.
Summer was changing out the cooler pads and filling the rubber wading pool and frolicking in the lawn sprinkler and gulping grape Kool Aid and stepping tentatively, barefoot, in hot newly laid tar as you waited your turn at the ice cream truck, and playing Red Light Green Light so long into the evening until you could no longer see who was cheating....then retreating to home for a bath and bed and dreams of cold watermelon and freshly churned home made ice cream.
We should appreciate our summers. Think about it....if we're lucky we get about 75 of them. To put their preciousness in perspective...if we had put 75 pennies in a pickle jar and withdrew one for each of our summers, think about how few we now have left.
Hope you enjoyed your last day of summer. Venture out barefoot to the front lawn and squish the grass between your toes once more. Have a cold slice of watermelon. Mix up a batch of grape Kool Aid and walk around with a purple "mustache" for the day.
And here, for your enjoyment, is my favorite summer song of all:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdTXjRQI7ok
7 comments:
Love those big time orchestra sounds. They made movies memorable. Sometimes every bit as important to the success of a movie as the movie itself... Unfortunately, as I move closer to my 70's, summer has lost it's luster. I can remember the excitement that used to find it's way to the pit of my stomach as the realization of fun, sun, games, travels, friends and no school was right around the corner. Summer, just another season, now. Maybe Fantasy Island wasn't such a bad idea.
I'm loving that for at least a minute it seems that summer has actually left us, cool mornings and evenings with the doors and windows open as we welcome fall. I must admit I'm not summers biggest fan,,but then it makes me appreciate spring and fall all the more.
We used to ride our motorcycles out by the "Bulls Pasture out by the Big Fig Tree", great riding. Use to walk down the road and see the Butterfly cocoons hanging on the fences waiting to mature so they could fly away. When the roads were tarred and new gravel spread over for the new surface, hated falling off your bike onto the new gravel. Floating down the Sacramento River, fishing for Striper and swimming across the river to steal Crawdads from the Crawdad traps and cook them up while skipping rocks. Playing ball in the park and kicking back with friends, later in the night we would get into the little Catholic Church and ring the bell late at night. Man, those were the days, good times were had. Thanks for taking us down memory lane. To bad we don't have many summers left.
Thanks for sharing, everybody.
Brought back some great memories. Thanks Modest.
My pleasure, Brian.
Beautiful story, thanks and thanks for bringing the memories flooding back in. The motorcycles the parties at the beach, summers in San Diego on Point Loma and Mission Beach, La Jolla Cove and of course the all day pass at Belmont Park with my first girlfriend giving me my first real deal kiss on the beach, That had me swaying for months. WOW!! I learned to play "Summer Place" on my first harmonica and played it well I might add. Thanks, I can't stop smiling now! Enjoy the Fall, in warm Arizona.
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