Talk to the Goat
Ah yes, skipping rope, double dutch, green onions in a glass, and scorching the bottoms of soft feet!
Summer is also playing outside all waking hours until it was dark and mothers voices called their children inside. It is too hot to sleep upstairs so you're allowed to sleep outside in the tent trailer or downstairs on mats on the living room floor. (Ottawa has killer humid hot nights)
Summer is scuffed toes in flipflops, chasing fireflies at night, living on your bike, getting nasty horsefly bites at the lake, and having all the time in the world to play.
So love the summer - the long twilights at the beach. Later maybe a fire, marshmellows and much laughter. Unfortunately I have some time to wait, as winter creeps up on us here.
Nice writing Jay - reminded me of a similar time. 
Ooo, I love the boat, we have a speed boat that's old but is great for the summer. All those days on the lake...
speaking of mosquito bits, I'm covered in 'em right now!! Arggggg
Which brings up the philosophical question of what came first: the "bucket of chicken" or the "egg"?
Summer means a happy me! I adore summer: Pimms and lemonade, BBQs, strawberries & cream, long warm nights, sitting outside bars watching the world go by, skirts & flip-flops. Shame it's always over so quickly!
i grew up in the tropics, so it was always summer! but love your post. it gave me a delicious taste of summers i've never known.
I bought a pair of neon orange jellies today. Simply because they were the hallmark of summer when I was little.
Growing up in the same region you did, you just made me feel as if I were there again.
Summer for me was going up to Lac Simon (about 30 minutes north of Montebello), Dad pullling our trailer, Mom pulling the boat, singing around camp fires, the scent of toast carefully put on a stick to roast over the open fire, marshmellows, water skiing on the lake or then on the Ottawa river, biking down the hills of a neary sand and gravel pit.... Ahh, and the buttercups... Yeah... Such beautiful memories. You really made me smile.
Ah yes SUMMER... a chance to VACATION! ~ jb///
oh yes, so many of those things. how about camp fires with marshmallows, the smell of "OFF" to repel mosquitos, strawberry picking and making jam, just to add to your list.
summer is kids staying up late and making noise while I'm trying to sleep
summer is the wife bringing home bar b queables on the exact day I least want to see them
summer is full of moron cruise ship passengers
summer is dry golf in Vancouver
summer is CHEAP golf in Arizona
this year most of summer will be in the Andes mountains of Bolivia. gonna be the best summer in a long time
Nice reminiscences, Jay. To me, summer means life outside. I love seeing people having fun, hearing lively voices and not wearing coats or heavy clothing. Living in Michigan, these warm times don't last long. I treasure them when they come and get a little sad when they go.
My favorite season. The shoes. Lightweight skirts. Short shorts. The pool. My telescope. And that moment in the evening where it's cool enough to take a walk.
Almost the same here on this side of the Atlantic coast, the boat was on Ile d'Oleron, the beach is the same today, from the house we had to cross barefoot a mound of small burning pebbles to reach the sea, summer is on the way hourra!
Question: is the rabbit hopping, identity crises dog the same dog with the grass-eating bulimia issues?
Summer: my mother 'stealing' the top swirl off my Mr. Softee ice cream cone after swearing (every time) that she only wanted a lick.
happy days are here again.
i love to watch turtles basking in the sun. nothing cheers me up like seeing 5 baskers sitting on a log.
Summer is glowy skin that never needs makeup, BBQing all the time, listening to Sublime and driving with the windows down.
Looking forward to it, too!
sorry
summer's not happy for me.
not since that day...
still, hope yours is good
Summer is running across hot sand, splashing into the lake, listening to the muted roar of the motor boats underwater while looking up into the tree tops wondering if anyone would notice you floating away.
Enjoyed reading your account of your childhood summers. Unfortunately in Malaysia,its hot all year and just wet or wetter. I prefer Autumn.
The beach, late in the afternoon when the sun isn't so hot, after the lifeguards and most of the crowds have left and you can drift in and out of consciousness to the surf, the surfers and the occasional distant voice.
That was exquisite, Jamie! I loved it for most those reasons too when I was growing up in the north. Now that I live in the land of always summer, I love it the most because there is no chance for snow, which I despise. I'll be going to NY a few times this summer and it'll be fun to see that look on the faces of young people especially. The look you get when you get to do all the things you described so vividly. I was just recalling a while ago that as a kid we used to hitchhike everyplace without even thinking about danger and that was a bit how summer felt--so utterly free and worriless.
Lovely descriptions! Having grown up in the equatorial region of the world I lived a perpetual Summer, I suppose. There are (and will be more) of those posts over on my current and older blog.
Cheers to your Summer!
Summer was always my favorite season, beginning with my birthday, which was usually the last day of school.
I remember so many of the things you mentioned, and now that I live in Northern California, they will remain just that -- memories, as there is no logical progression of seasons here.
Only the tourists wear short shorts and halters and they always look shocked, hugging themselves for warmth, that the calendar doesn't apply here.
Joy: yes, it is the very same dog.
Better Safe - definite YES on the strawberry picking!
Racing---summer is racing, tied to a friend's leg wth a scarf, carrying a raw egg on a spoon, just to try the new sneakers....
Summer to me meant playing Red Rover, playing marbles in the dirt, hop scotch, picnics on the beach (my older sister cooked a hamburger soup with sea water that was to die for.. I think the salt air sharpened our appetites.. you wouldn't dare use sea water to cook nowadays would you?), hide and seek, standing under a tree in a lightening storm (what were we thinking?), the stange light after a freak storm, making mud pies with flower for decorations (yummy), the smell of clothes dried in the sun, swimming in the warm Atlantic waters until our fingers were all wrinkly and then dripping water on our protesting parents as they lay in the sun on a blanket... ahhh summer.
Droog;
It was the rooster who Came first. not the egg or ckicken.
So earthy & happy, the real things that matter-so sensitive and meaningful. I loved it as I remember too fishing in the river and skinny dipping in the brook, the naughty things we loved doing, the absence of stress and modern media distractions.
Great read,10/10
How could I even begin to tell you more than you have offered? That post was phenomenal!
I love the long daylight hours and the weather that you can just hang out in with no clothes worries. It just seems to be such a free and fun time of year.
Hey Jay - well, you read my post on our Summer holidays so you know what it means to me!
BTW - we have Spring Onions over here.
Yes, yes, yes!
I love this post.
I'm not a psychiatrist but I'm pretty sure your dog had "cotton-tail envy."
A Jungian may disagree.
These are lovely memories. Summer is not my favorite season, although I'm enjoying it more in a milder climate.
I made a couple of nice memories in starting a relationship last summer - one was a dinner train trip on July 4 to Columia Winery. The other was just spending that whole week with my lady.
Here in Florida Summer means one thing above all else... THE BEACH! WOO HOO!
I remember riding in the back of the pickup on the way there and the uncomfortable ride on the way back as we were all invariably burned to a crisp. I remember taking turns at the ice cream churn making home made ice cream.
And yes, all of the fishing trips, to one of many lakes or to the Ochlawaha river or to the gulf...
Great stuff.
They were known as green onions at our house too and they were a favorite. Mom also had them on the table in a flower vase and she would yell at me everytime I dumped half a shaker of salt on my plate to dip the onion in before eating.
My favorite memories of summer was riding my bike with my brother and friends to one of the local sandstone quarries to go swimming. You would be soaking with sweat and the quarry water was so refreshing.
It was anywhere from a ten foot to sixty foot jump to get in the quarry. One even had a rope tied to a tree that required a mighty swing to get out past the ledge that jutted out into the water. The water was so deep that now days the quarrries are all closed off or filled in so someone won't drown. (Though I don't remember anyone drowning the entire time I grew up.)
Then there was the ride home. We get back burnt and sweaty. Mom would lay out some fresh sheets on the carpet for us to lay on and put a fan on the floor next to us. No A.C. back then. That was summer to me.
Great post Jay.
Summer?
Isn't summer that 2 weeks in July?
Seriously I remember summer meaning only 4 hours of night. The sun setting at 11m and being back up by 2 or 3am. Even in those short hours of night, the Norther nights would still come out.
That's what I remember most about Summer in Fort. McMurray.
Oh and the camping in the middle of nowhere. WHAT WAS THE DEAL WITH THAT?
Summer is not my favourite season because I'm not a big fan of the heat. But one thing I love about summer is that it means there's no work (for me) for a good 8 weeks and I'm still paid for it!
Summer+Beer+Lots of Death Metal Shows=A Happy Beefcake.
I love it because I am a goat
watermelon and happy kids running through sprinklers. nuff said?
OH and I forgot...if you do decide to get mace, just google the word 'mace' and you should be able to order it online. I'm not sure about whether or not you're even allowed to have it in Canada...but if you are, it might not be a bad investment. Here in the states you can just go into any gun shop and buy it just as easily as you could go buy a candy bar.
There's a reason why summer was my favorite month...so many great memories. Thanks for sharing yours.
I do like summer fruit, but I'm still going to have to stand behind Fall as my favorite season. I love sweaters and warm beverages.
-P
I guess summ...oh, nice post, reminds of "out of school" and doing whatever I pleased, unless it was going on one of those year(2 weeks) long summer vacations with the family and never having enough time to enjoy it cuz we had to get back home for dad to go to work.
Summer time is falling asleep while reading in my hammock while my kids play. Then they come over and swing the hammock hard and dump Daddy's ass in the sand.
As a kid I always loved summer because of the sheer laziness of it. No school, wake up every morning not knowing what you were going to do until you did it.
It is very summer time here. The pool opened at the rec center today and as we walked by this afternoon you could hear the sounds of kids splashing away in the pool.
summer is falling asleep listening to the rain and smelling it as your eyes close.
summer is waking up the next morning to bright sunshine at 5am and not wanting to shoot someone because of it.
summer is the birds that wake you up at aforementioned 5am and though it's peaceful at times it's bloody annoying at others.
summer is BAD HAIR-- agreed. summer is many minutes spent straightening one's hair only to have the humidity curl it up again.
Summer is my least favorite season. Hotness is just so annoying. I'd rather have it overcast and slightly chilled anyday.
Summer is all about finding that special someone, becoming fast friends, and living the next twelve weeks in ultimate bliss...then autumn rolls around and you realize you cant imagine life without that special someone. In one word, it's summer love.
I'm glad your starting off a great summer
... it snowed here last night... 
Summertime Girls
You make the whole world
go `round
When you lift me up
I never come down
-Y&T
I'm not much of a summer girl myself (heat and I do not get along and I rarely find the motivation to stray far from the central air unless there is swimming promised). But when I think of summer I think of beach volleyball and broken bones (I seemed to have a propensity for breaking bones to celebrate the arrival of summer while growing up, back when summer was a change in schedule, not just the daily grind with hotter temps.)
For all of the same reasons you list here... and for catching lightning bugs and wading in the creek and riding horses bareback and having no discernable schedule to attend to.
Things that bear no resemblance to my adult life. Why was I in such a hurry to grow up? Why?
Ah, a lovely post...
One of my favorite things about childhood summers was watching fields full of fireflies at night...and catching them in a jar for my own "lantern" that I'd bring back to my room. Unfortunately insects trapped in a jar and then kept in one's closet didn't seem to live too long, and my mom didn't enjoy the stink they created after they'd died.
Corn on the cob.
Fresh strawberries.
Smelling like sun.
Corona.
Mmmm, summer!
Awww Jay...great post!
Summer to me, means lots of golf.
LOVE this!!! I'm so going to steal this idea for a post (with credit, of course!).
Summer to me is the smell of fresh honeysuckle, hands sticky with popsicle juice, lightening bugs Grammie's peach pie, roadtrips with melted M & M's, riding our bikes all over the neighborhood before coming home when the street lights came on, stopping at Dairy Queen on our walk home from the pool...
Summer is having longer days to hop in the car and spend a lazy weekend afternoon roaming miles from the city.
Summer is hitting roadside stands for fresh fruits and veggies or old drive-ins serving up monster ice cream cones.
Ahhh...Summer
My bestest friend coming from the "cities" to spend the summer with her grandma and she and I putting on free Avon lipstick samples and pretending to drive the broken down car in grandma's yard to see our "boyfriends"
The same BFF and I dressing up in high heels to walk by the neighbor boy's house that we had a crush on and hiding if he was acutally outside.
(the Bff is no longer a Bff. She decided drugs were more iportant than a country girl with a strong will and a great sense of humor)
Teenage years going to the race track smelling the red clay dust and sneaking beers.
The freedom of my own car and cruising park point and other beaches with girlfriends. (and sneaking beers)
The memories go on. I'll go before I get too misty.
scallions and green onions? Not the same thing. I love the thoughts of summer, though I am wondering when someone will come to my door with buckets of chicken
Summer is going camping for a few weeks with another family, and us singing camp songs all evening, then being told by a park ranger to turn down the radio, for which we felt very flattered.
I remember the wild onions on our school playground, and how that one dirty kid used to eat them like they were a delicacy.
Summer to me is sunscreen and more effin' sunscreen, and 30 straight days of temperatures above 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
I'm not a big fan of summer.
But, it's also homemade ice cream, Cave City (Arkansas) watermelon, Fourth of July with my family, and lots of swimming in the lake.
Sunshine. Warmth. They're good for the soul...
Such beautiful imageries, Jay. Wonderful. I love the way you write (obviously, why I check your blog practically daily?)
I love the summer for the energy, really. Everything is alive and going. No squirmishness, no cold feet.
Go go go!!
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memories past and present:
Itchy grass rash after hours of flashlight tag
bat watching on the deck
popsicles or ice cream cones running down my elbows
playing in the hose/sprinkler (well not IN the hose, but you know. . .)
splash pool joy
laundry flapping in the breeze
great booming thunderstorms and rain that sheets down making the water roar through the gutters
Sliding down the roaring gutters
The smell off Orange Off! and Coppertone sunscreen
There's so much more. . .
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