It’s a d@mn SHAME that so many people miss out on:
Beach bonfires wrapped in the arms of Mom or Dad or a Grandparent...
Catching fireflies in a jar...
Jumping off the dock/pier with wild abandon...
Fishing for Crappie and Yellow Perch...
Catching Leopard Frogs & Minnows (for bait)...
Drive-In Movies...
Ice Cream Cones at the Dairy Queen...
Bathing in the lake with a bar of Ivory Soap; because it floats...
Friday Night Fish Fry - with the fish you caught yourself...
Grandpa singing: “I love to go swimmin’ with bow-legged women and swim between their legs!” LOL!
Grandma ringing the Cow Bell to call you in for the night...
SAND in EVERYTHING you own, and...
You and everyone you knew, sun-kissed and smelling of Coppertone Suntan Lotion all Summer long. *LOVE*
Thanks for the memories! Such. Good. Times.
Glad they were mine...and your wife’s! Have her check my list to see if I forgot anything! :)
That’s a great list! I remember all those myself, but we only went to “the lake” for a couple weeks in those summers we weren’t traveling all over the US visiting our many scattered relatives.
What about picking those Yellow Perch bones out of your teeth? Those were the boniest fish ever!
We didn’t have Grandma & Grandpa there unfortunately.
My wife would no doubt add the smell of mixed two-stroke outboard fuel, the roar of the outboard, and the slap of the waves on the wood runabout hull from dawn until dusk! I’ll pass your list to her.
Thank you for the quick flashback to a far more carefree time.
Coming in out of the cold water, taking off the wet bathing suit and putting on warm socks and cowboy boots. (Well - the rest of the clothing too!) Then having a fresh-baked roll of grandma's.
The sound of the screen door slamming, the door on the outhouse closing, a boat out on the lake (oh - that's the Anderson's boat just by the sound), loons, and once in a rare while a wolf.
The smell of the sandy soil mixed with roots and decayed leaves while digging for worms.
And don't forget the mosquito bites and black flies and poison ivy rash. (The mosquitoes and poison ivy never bothered me - but those black flies!!)
Ours was a two room cabin with living room/kitchen on one half, two double beds and a bunk bed in the other half. Built in the early 1920’s and bought by my grandpa a few years later. Both grandparents knew each other then as new immigrants, so my mom commented numerous times that the first time she slept with my dad was when she was 8 years old! They would put blankets on the living room floor for all the little kids.
I would spend most of the summer up there with my grandma, grandpa and mom and my siblings, with dad coming up for long weekends. Northern Minnesota.