Summer

Each year at this time, I feel inspired to write about summer and childhood. I am filled with memories of my own childhood, the ending of another school year, the excitement of moving forward, and the hopes for summer. As a parent and a teacher, I have re-lived these experiences vividly through my own children and students’ end of year rituals, parties, yearbooks, culminations, final projects and, all the "lasts". I like to think back and remember my own childhood summers. My mother didn’t work outside the home until I was older (she was raising 7 kids!), and my father was a professor so he could take 2 or 3 weeks off in the summer to be with us. I grew up with a lot of siblings, so I always had playmates. We went swimming, played for hours outside, rode bikes with the neighborhood kids until the sun went down, sometimes stayed in our pajamas as long as we wanted, and drove as a family of 9 in a station wagon with no seat belts and no air conditioning to visit places like the Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, the Southwest, Oregon and Washington where we hiked and canoed and sometimes cooked meals on a camp stove. As a mother, I tried over the years to create those same summer memories for my children, and I still often long for days where my kids are running through the sprinklers, laughing in a swimming pool, driving throughout the West, playing with the neighborhood kids, climbing trees, playing in their tree house, riding bikes all over our town, and watching fireworks at the beach. But, life is very different now. My children are grown, have each graduated college, and are forging their independent lives. Recently, one moved 4 hours away, and is engaged to be married. With gratitude, they still love to spend time together as a family, and we plan future summer trips together, which is now far more difficult to coordinate! Times are very different than even when my children were young. Indeed, today all of our children have access to more activities, more technology, more camp experiences, and pretty much, it seems, more of everything. But, can we still preserve a little summer like the “good old days?” Although I know life is different now, I am a sentimental person, so I encourage others not to give up on trying to provide experiences that re-create these feelings, memories and adventures of simple summer pleasures. Some ideas: one year we took a road trip to Wyoming with paper maps and fun road trip games. We backpacked for 3 days where technology had no place, 4 of us piled into a 2 person tent to hide from mosquitoes and passed the time playing card games. We met marmots and porcupines who chewed on our walking stick handles. During another summer, we met up with dear friends in Costa Rica where we chatted, played games, swam, and relaxed with no major agenda except togetherness and forming more memories. A few years ago, we rented a cabin for a weekend, and upon arrival, could not do much because of smoke from wildfires. Forced indoors, we cooked, played cards, danced to music, and laughed a lot. One doesn't have to go anywhere to experience the simplicity and presence of summertime. We can all benefit from experiencing less. Our children grown up quickly. Presence is hard and necessary. Here’s to your families and your summer! I hope that it has some time in it for laziness, free play, reading a good book, unscheduled time, swimming in the water somewhere, eating watermelon, spending time with friends and family, and maybe even a long ride in a car with real paper maps.