Summer Time Memories. What Are Yours?

Beach shoes (Photo credit: @Doug88888)

School Is All Over 

School is all over

I'm in the next grade--

And it's picnics and popsicles,

Pink lemonade,

Sunburns and sailing

And feet that are bare

T-shirts and sneakers

And sand in my hair,

Swimming and rowing 

And fisherman's fun. It's hard to believe it,

But summer's begun.   Alice Low

Don't we all love summer?  Especially the beginning of summer when it seems like an endless span of time stretching forever into the future.  Unstructured days of carefree nothing planned.  As a kid I remember roaming around with friends all day exploring, pretending, playing.  Summertime nowadays means working parents, summer camps, neighborhood pools, allstar all-summer sports teams, water-parks and theme parks; I didn't have any of that growing up in the 50's and 60's.  Family vacation for my sister and me was traveling to North Carolina to visit relatives.  I'm not sure if children of this era aren't missing those lazy hazy summertime days of yesteryear where we created our own fun rather than expected to be entertained...

Summertime meant sleeping in until the sun was blazing in my bedroom window.  No air conditioning back then and you had to finally get up to keep from drowning in a pool of sweat.
Or sometimes rising early before anyone was up and wandering about the yard.  Everything felt so new and fresh and  brilliant with life.
Fishing for shiners in the lake across the street.  Snagging  catfish instead and trying to figure out how to get them off the hook.
Riding our bikes until we found a new creek to explore, a new field to  play in
Creating whole fantasy worlds, populating them with characters, conflicts, friendships.  Acting out all the parts with my best friend and next door neighbor.  We were drama queens before anyone had even thought of the stereotype.
Giving ourselves new names that we thought were more romantic and more suiting our character.  Actually using them to talk to each other.
Writing my first novel but--never getting past the first chapter which I rewrote over and over
Playing games for hours;  Monopoly, Canasta, Parcheesi
Early nesters we were, creating forts wherever we went;  in the woods, in the garage rafters, under the jungle gym covered with an old blanket
Going to the library and checking out stacks of books, then lying in  bed reading them for hours until my body was stiff from the lack of movement
Neighborhood Fourth of July parties on the beach.  Getting up early and arriving before the sun was even up.  Cooking eggs in a skillet over the fire for breakfast then playing all day long in the sand and the waves.
Playing tag and hide and go seek just as it was getting dark.  Mom calling us inside when we wanted to stay up forever and keep playing.

What are your summertime memories?  How have things changed since you were a kid?