Take Me Back

Do you ever have a smell or hear something that instantly takes you back?

Summer is by far my least favorite season, but as a kid, I loved it! Summer meant freedom!

This past week the boys have been having fun playing outside in the the sprinkler and spraying each other with water. A lot of times I set up my lounge chair in the sun, grab a book and some water and let the boys play. I sprayed some sunscreen on myself the other day and the coconut smell sent me back to the early 90's. My mom would lay out in the driveway while we ran through the sprinkler or played in our little pool. She'd be all slathered in oil and engrossed in her romance novels, as we ran and played to our heart's content.

Of course, once I started down memory lane, other summer memories came flooding back to me.

We rarely did big "exciting" things. That doesn't mean we were bored though. Somehow Mom made summers so much fun. It really is the little things that mean the most and make the best memories.

Most summers we had a pool pass and spent just about every afternoon at the Cherry Hill pool. Mom would sit and tan, or watch Kendra in the baby pool, and would send Erica and I off to go do our thing...which was usually holding our breath underwater, yelling underwater and trying to guess what the other said, or doing flips and handstands to "impress" the lifeguards. Rarely did we get money for the concession stand, but we could always count on mom to sneak in some fruit snacks or granola bars for us.

We spent countless hours outside. In fact, many times we'd get banished to the outdoors for awhile! I miss those days. The ones where kids could be kids. We'd just take off on our bikes and ride through the neighborhood. We'd ride up to the park and play for awhile. I had a basket on my bike for the sole purpose of collecting pop cans to turn in for money.

I can remember being so sweaty and gross, but not caring at all. (How I wish that were still true!) I LOVED bath nights in the summer because it meant going to bed with wet hair, and it felt so nice and cool. I had the best room in the house too, because mine was in the basement...so even when mom and dad were too cheap to turn the air on, my room was still cool.

There were nights where Mom and Dad would go out on the deck at night and us girls would be watching TV inside. A lot of times though, I was drawn out to the deck. Then we'd all end up out there listening to the cicadas, while we talked and a laughed.

Summers ALWAYS meant a trip to Adventureland. Always. If you grow up in Iowa, you go. That was usually our big summer adventure. I was a big rider, so dad and I would go on all of the fast rides, while Erica and Kendra were with mom. Erica would always get motion sick. Usually we'd spend the first part of the day all together riding things we could all ride. Lunch was always in the parking lot. Mom would bring a picnic and we'd eat and rest. Then we'd split up for awhile. That was always my favorite because I got have dad to myself. We of course always had to go to the magic show too, and then play games. I was the Skee-Ball queen. Remember the money I collected from pop cans? That was my spending money!
I think next year we're finally going to take the boys and I'm so excited! I haven't been there since 2011, and I was pregnant with Daniel and couldn't ride anything.

We went to the library every week and did the reading program. I read SO much and loved getting the prizes. No summer was complete without getting to ride the city bus downtown with our neighbors at least once. We'd eat at the "fancy" McDonalds and then walk to the library. It was a big deal to us!

My sisters and I also loved that mom was a sucker for eating out. Dad...not so much. Summers worked out great for us. We'd rotate between McDonalds, Burger King, Hardees, Taco John's and Subway. And those REALLY lucky days we'd get lunch AND ice cream at DQ or get to go to the mall and eat at our beloved Chick-fil-A. Mom would tell us, "Do not tell your dad we ate out again today, or we can't do it again!" Our lips were forever sealed.

For a couple of summers we spent hours at church. Mom was the custodian, and we would get dragged along to help. I got stuck with trash duty and vacuuming a lot. Usually after that, she'd get sick of our "help" and send us off to wreak havoc on the church. (I mean...she didn't know what we were actually doing most of the time. It was a big church and she'd have killed us if she knew half of the stuff we pulled. LOL!) Erica and I had our SHS (Secret Hiding Spot) that we'd run to when we were either trying to escape Kendra or hide from mom giving us more jobs like picking up all the crap left in the sanctuary from Sunday. (No joke..some old guy used to clip his fingernails during church and leave them!).
We also held "wheelchair races". Still feel slightly bad for the dent I put in a door because Erica rammed me into it. We also may or may not have gotten into the VBS cookie stash a time or two. Such well behaved little church kids.

I could probably come up with a hundred more memories. I just hope that the boys will look back on their childhood the same way. We can't afford to go to Disney or some big fancy vacation too often, but we make our own adventures frequently!