We like the things that summer brings.
It brings the sun.
It brings the heat.
It brings the things
we like to eat.
Summer brings so many things!
-- from Summer, by Alice Low
Growing up in the city, we were very lucky to be able to escape to our beach house in the summer. Instead of shimmering hot pavement and fetid gutters, our summer memories are a page straight out of the Americana handbook: sand, surf, sprinklers, spud, wiffle ball, bike rides, the ice cream man, and chasing rabbits. But beyond the generic experiences, my siblings and I also share memories of summer particular solely to us—the memory of the toys and books in the beach house. What was in the house in 1975 stayed in the house, with few (if any) changes. Because we weren’t inside much it just didn’t matter. So every summer we contentedly played with the same potholder loom (always short five or six bands), drew with the same broken crayons stored in the Raggedy Ann bag, pored over the same Archie comics (and, better still, the Betty and Veronica digests) and reread the same children’s books (which we did, in fairness to us and to our mom, supplement with many age appropriate books from the local library).
Summer, quoted above, was (and still is) one of my favorites. It is a happy catalog of the joys of summer-- as lived by a boy, a girl and their pup-- told in rhyme and accompanied by vibrant illustrations.
As we hurtle through the season—when school ends June 26ththe fourth of July comes waaaay too soon—I’m inspired to add a few stanzas. (Apologies to Ms. Low.)
Summer brings so many things!
It brings us camp.
On that we’re keen.
It brings us battles
About sunscreen.
Some summer days
we have swim meets.
Why are there
So many heats?
We like to have friends
come to our pool,
We play Kan Jam
We play Kan Jam
It’s pretty cool.
We grill out, hang,
We think we’re fine.
Pump is broken!
Hello, Shoreline?
Summer brings so many things!
We take the Jeep
With the top down
Wind in our hair
We scream through town.
Geocaching
With our mother
Why does she still
Watch Big Brother?
We love these days.
We love these days.
The mood is cool
'Til Target starts
With "Back to School."
HAPPY SUMMER
