Summer Memories

With the end of June looming upon us and the 4th of July holiday slowing creeping up, is it just me or does summer seem to really fly by.  I remember being in school as a kid and summer seemed to last forever.  Ok, when I was a kid we had to come up with our own thing to do, me I had a horse and rodeos and parades and horse shows but I don't ever remember being over scheduled.  But times were different and I remember my mom telling us to go outside and play and we didn't come back until it was dark.  I remember eating at friends houses for lunch or even just people in the neighborhood just feeding us.  (Guess we were quite the little beggars, but I don't remember ever starving to death) .  We drank water from the hose.  We didn't have a lot of money so getting to go to the pool once a week was a huge treat.  We made forts out in the field, we played with everybody.  We would climb trees and make up games.  Most of the time, I suspect our parents had NO CLUE what we were doing or what we were up to and they didn't start to worry about us until it was really dark.  And even after it got dark, we would hurry home and eat supper and beg to go out and play some more.  Hide and seek, kick the can, telling spooky stories basically until it was bed time.  We walked and rode our bikes everywhere and if someone didn't have a bike, they rode on the handlebars, heck when we finally got home and got dunked in the tub there was probably enough dirt in there to start a garden at the bottom of the tub.  There was always one person who had a little  money and you would get a soda and share it.  We NEVER stayed inside, even when it was raining, we always had a fort that we made.  There was never anything fun to watch during the day, we only had 4 channels to watch.  NO DVD's, no Netflix, no ipad, no Xbox.  I you were very lucky and had $10, you would go to the arcade and play video games and if you got really good that $10 would last you all day.  It was a like a casino for kids, it was always dark with lots of neon, jukebox playing music all the time and when you finally ventured back outside, your eyes had to readjust to the sunlight.

My family didn't have money, we didn't take vacations or go to amusement parks.  But we had imagination and ingenuity.  We didn't know that people could go to the pool EVERY DAY!  We just wanted to hang with our friends and just be outside and enjoy everything that entailed.

Enough of our stroll down memory lane!

This summer season is flying by and it seems even though I have more hours of sunlight, it gets hard to get everything done in a day I want to get done.  Oh for the days where my most deep thought was who do I call over in Red Rover?  (You know that game you lined up and called someone from the other team, then would come running at you full speed and as long as they didn't break your hands apart they were part of your team.  Also the precursor of WWF, I believe because you could easily clothesline a person and flip them on their back, so I'm think Vince McMahon must have been an Olympic Red Rover champion as a kid)

So try to get out and enjoy some summer, it's whipping by quickly.  Next week it's July 4th with the awe of fireworks and BBQ's and celebrating the USA as only we can.

So this is just a little diddy of the thoughts that are in my head this week.  Working out and keeping on course, trying hard to up my game this last few months left in my goal year, but know I can do more once concessions are done and a bit more free time is available.

So go out and soak up some Vitamin D.  Take a minute to just look up at the clouds or enjoy the endless blue of the sky.  It's Iowa and I know that can be hard to find the sun lately with all the rain and severe weather we seem to be partaking in but if you see a sliver of sunlight, take a break and go out and enjoy it and remember when you were a kid and your most stress thing to worry about was weather there was enough peanut butter for your sandwich!!!

Have a peachy week my friends and until next time!