That got me thinking about summer as a child. Oh those days of summer were so special to me. I lived on a farm in Minnesota with a VERY large family. We started working from a very young age to get the crops in and harvested. We had animals to care for and that job is never ending. But we had fun and lots of it, especially in SUMMER!
We played outside most of the time. We had swings that were attached to high branches of trees that would swing high and long. I loved to swing.
We rode bikes on the farm and country roads. My sister Becky and I a few times rode to a little country store several miles away and bought treats and then rode home, eating them on the way. One time we had bought an ice cream sandwich and forgot about it and when we got home it was melted. We laughed about that!
We played a game that I am thinking our family made up called Annie, Annie over. We would divide in two teams and one team is at the front of the house and the other team on the back. You have a small ball that is soft and bouncy and one team yells Annie Annie over. The other team says ready and then you throw the ball over the house. If it doesn't go over you say Pigs Tails. If it goes over and they don't catch it they then throw it over to the front, saying Annie Annie over. If someone does catch it they run around the house and the person with the ball has to tag people. If you are tagged or hit with the ball you are then on their team. This is done over and over until only one person is left. Oh how fun that was. It would scare me waiting to see people running around the house and I was not sure who had the ball. (This is what happens when you don't have store bought toys.) Made up fun.
We would on occasion talk my dad into playing baseball with us after dinner which is the noon meal. It seemed so special to have him play with us for an hour even when we knew he was very busy with all the work on a farm in the summer months. One of the advantages of a large family is that you have enough people to have teams for baseball. :)
Minnesota is the land of 10,000 lakes. One nice part of that is you don't have to drive too far to swim or fish or water ski. We did all of that in many lakes close to our farm. Swimming was awesome on a hot day. We would once in awhile take a picnic to the lake for noon, then all of us would swim. I didn't realize at the time all the work that made for my mom, but she was amazing and knew we all needed to break up the hard work with some fun play. Now Minnesota weather isn't the hot south but it definitely has some hot summer days and swimming felt so good, especially if we had been working hard. One thing I remember is that when my dad was getting wet, it took him awhile.( And woe to the one who would splash him or get him wet before he dove in. ) You just DID NOT do that. I understand that now as an adult. But back then I just didn't understand what took him so long to get wet. Oh and we also had the wait an hour before you swim told to us many a time or we would get a cramp and drown. Anyone else out there fed that lie as a child? It was torture to wait a whole hour before a swim on a hot summer picnic day.
There were several years that my parents would rent a little cabin for a few nights in Northern Minnesota. Oh how exciting this was for us kids! We would plan what snacks we would buy. Old Dutch Onion and Garlic potatoes chips.CHECK Pink Lozenges candy. CHECK Red licorice.CHECK We would talk about it for days. We would all load into the station wagon and drive to the cabin. We would clean it up choose our beds and all marvel at the view, the swimming dock, and all the fun we would have for a few days. We would picnic, fish, rest, and laugh as we were all together. I felt so lucky to be a part of my family.
Baling hay is a big part of the farmers summer. As I got in my teens, it was my job very often to drive tractor for raking and baling hay. I could have been upset about it but instead decided to embrace it. I would wear my bathing suit and get a really nice tan while out in the fields for many hours a day. I see now that those were such precious times. (except for the time I hit a big hole while raking hay and my tractor threw me into the clutch as the two front wheels went down into the hole and stopped my tractor immediately.) I walked home crying because I was hurt in my ribcage but more so because I thought I broke a tractor. Much to my joy, my parents were not mad at me but thankful that I wasn't hurt worse. ( I don't think the tractor was too bad off either).
We would walk through the wheat fields and bean fields picking weeds. It seemed long and hard but we were rewarded with treats and sometimes money. One summer my dad passed out $100 bills to all of us kids. Even me and Paul. I don't think I was much over 7 or 8. I think all of our mouths fell open when he did that. It was our pay for a summer of working on the farm. I still remember the feeling that my dad and mom appreciated the work we did.
When I was pretty young,( I being the creative one that I am... ha ha,) would want to perform plays for my family. So since I had a younger brother Paul who pretty much did whatever I asked him to do, I would make him practice little plays and songs. Then I would write invitations to my family to come to a show after dinner. I invited Rod and Ivan, two of my older brothers to be curtain openers by the clothes line poles. It was so official. Paul and I sang" there is a busy, busy bee" and performed dance moves to it.(I think it was very good) I am thankful that my family didn't ignore my dreams but took part in them. I never made it to the big stage but I loved the moments of being a child and feeling loved by my family and enjoying summertime together.
From homemade popsicles, reading books, family games, wiener roasts, fireflies, starry nights, birthday parties for relatives, playing until the sun goes down and then some, eating fresh garden fruits and vegetables, canning pickles and everything else, county fairs, Crazy days in Hutchinson. 4H activities, church picnics, all of it was my summer fun and I remember it with fondness. Oh how I wish summer seemed to last as long now as it did then.
Me and Paul
Unloading hay
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