Remembering Summer Days

When I was a kid, my mom worked so I spent every day all summer with either my grandparents or one of my aunts. Today I'll reminisce about hanging out at my grandma and grandpa's on hot summer days.

We're going through a particularly steamy hot patch right now in Michigan, and I'm remembering being at my grandparents' house on similarly boiling hot days, with the only air conditioned room being the t.v. room - via a small window air conditioning unit. I would take a cool bath and then go in the t.v. room and stand in front of the air conditioning while I watched t.v. When my cousins and I slept over, my grandma would lay cool sheets down on the living room floor and position a fan or two to blow directly on us. (Side note: not one of my kids can stand to have a top sheet touching them. I love sheets. What's wrong with them?!) My grandma grew strawberries in the backyard, and she'd pick the berries and then lay them out in a bowl, next to a bowl of sugar. We'd dip each strawberry in sugar before taking a bite. I'm pretty sure I was an adult (maybe even a mother) before I ever had a strawberry not dipped in sugar. 

Outside there was a little kiddie pool to cool off in that my grandpa would set up on the drive way because he didn't want to mess up the lawn. I played with the other kids on the block, sometimes walking to the school playground on the corner. My grandma and I would sit on the front porch, on one of her cushioned white wrought iron seats, and talk and watch the neighborhood and try to catch a breeze on really hot days.

I took Bethany and Connor to my grandma's house many times when they were younger (my grandpa died years before he had the chance to meet my kids, and my grandma died before meeting Lucy and Mattie) and they often did the same things I did there as a kid. Eating popsicles on the front porch, bouncing balls on the driveway, playing with the kid next door in the kiddie pool.

What are some of your favorite memories of hot summer days?