It’s this time of year every summer when the kids start realizing summer is almost over and time to get ready to go back to school (groans). Adults are happy they are going back to school (yea!). Band and football practice camps have already started, and teachers are getting their curriculums written and approved for the new school year. The kids don’t realize it yet, but, compared to the rest of their lives they will look back and think these were the easy years for most of them.
Looking back, would you go back and repeat those years? Some say with a degree of enthusiasm, absolutely! While others would not want to repeat their years of puberty for all the tea in China!
But remember those lazy summer days where you had no responsibilities and could just play all day? Riding bikes, swimming, playing ball, etc. You’d take a quick break and eat some lunch and then you’d be right back to playing? The smells associated with summer like fresh cut grass, and the tinkling music of the ice cream truck, where you could get a cold popsicle or ice cream sandwich for a nickel. Maybe there was some fishing or camping involved.
Summer vacations in the mountains or at the beach? A Sunday at your grandparents’ house with a big family meal with some homemade ice cream? Did you take your turn at cranking the ice bucket and the cream turned into a delicious frozen concoction?
Fresh peach or maybe strawberry flavored with real fruit? Or maybe it was something a little simpler with just a hotdog off the grill, potato chips, and a cold Coca-Cola… ahhhh…. Those were hot and easy days of summer.
As we got into our teen years, those easy summer lazy days turned into a summer job to earn some extra cash for school. Or maybe you were saving up for that first car? Did you and your friends go to a drive-in movie? Visit the local indoor ice or skating rink? Or maybe you were the local bowling champ? Sometimes an indoor activity was just what we needed to get out of the heat!
Our Arizona summer days are filled with heat and then we get our local monsoon season with wind storms and sudden, and often violent, rain. We all have memories of a sudden downpour of several inches of rain that quickly turned our streets into dangerous flood zones. Did you have to rescue someone who drove into a flood zone that had a sign “Do Not Enter When Flooded”? And they, of course, entered anyway? They made the six o’clock news with a picture of them sitting on top of their automobile, drenched, with water up past their car windows?
So be safe, be cool, and follow directions! … Remember, Fall is just around the corner with cooler weather!