Summer memories..

Ahhh, those summer days and nights.....

Woo-Hoo! Look at those legs! I really love the mullet that I'm sporting too!

Age: ??? 11-12 ish???

Aw, look how cute I was! This was 5th grade or 6th grade ball.
Jolyn and I get some kitty cats from our neighbors, looks like I'm squeezing it to death with my face that I'm giving! The cat's lives were short after the semi trucks ran over them....Looks like Jo was about 5 and I was seven????
There's Jo and her fancy red bike...I was always a bit envious of the banana seat bike that she had but I did have a pink huffy! She was probably 9 there????

C-man and the neighbor girl have been spending the last two afternoons together......he can't wait to see Sarah in the front yard or the back so that he can play with her. Yesterday, while I pulled weeds, he and Sarah rode their scooters, played super heroes, and rode their bikes. Today, the kids played in our backyard on the playground and sandbox and looked for bugs.....I told Paul that it looks like C-man and Sarah are going to have a nice little summer friendship. What is cool is that Sarah will be in 1st grade at the same elementary school that he is going to be going to.

Anyways, it made me think of movies and how kids have summer adventures, or summer friendships.....well on the farm it was hard to have a summer friendship, but we sure had our summer adventures:

• Lots of bike riding in the drive-way and when we were older on the highway (with no helmets, I can't believe I let semi's drive by 60 mph! without a helmet on)


• running in the sprinkler


• playing on the slip n slide


• water fights


• mowing the lawn in my bikini


• mowing the hay, getting to drive the tractor with my bikini on and getting a nice sun tan at the time....now I'd be lathered in sun block and asking for an air-conditioned cab with a large cushion seat!


• catching lightning bugs


• smushing dandelions in Dad's vice grip in his tool shed....I think we were making potions


• walking beans


• picking up rock in the fields


• helping load the hay on the elevator that would take it up to the hay mow........and people look at me funny when I call it a hay mow...they've only known it as a hay loft.


• playing in the barn with the cats


• playing softball with Jolyn


• playing cops and robbers with Jolyn


• Jolyn and I thinking we had a clubhouse with the old wagon full of logs and mice and bugs


• Swinging and singing and seeing how high we could fly and if we could swing high enough to see Feldman's


• playing lots of softball as a child all the way up to High school


• Rouging corn


• playing in the creek and the Culver


• golfing at the country club


• swimming at the country club


• watching summer thunderstorms


• catching REAL ladybugs by the rock


• playing on the rock


• playing behind the machine shed and calling it a forest


• Helping Mom garden, snap peas, snap beans, pick strawberries, pull onions, dig potatoes, pick asparagus, and husk corn as well as freeze corn.
• Vacations to Colorado, Minnesota, Virginia, Wisconsin, Missouri, etc.
• camping trips
• sleeping in the camper out in our yard

I'm sure I could go on and on, but I know that we were rarely bored and if we told Mom that we were bored, she would put us to work and then after our chores, we'd have another idea or thing to do.......never do I and never will I resent living on the farm....it was a chance to use my creativity and why I love the nature so much. Going to visit Mom and Dad is what I call a retreat......a time to slow down and take in the fresh farm air.....unless there are easterly winds....we stay in...don't like that pig smell so much!