Time to Make Memories

My summers as a child were spent with family. We fished, we camped and vacationed together. Most years included a trip to visit our cousins in Colorado. Oh how we loved our time with our grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.

In the evenings we would gather together either at grandma’s house or at one of my aunt and uncle’s homes. Other evenings we would head to the mountains where we would roast hot dogs and load our plates with all kinds of delicious salads and side dishes. No one ever went hungry.

Some summers we visited my uncles’ saw mill in the mountains. Knowing full well that we would itch the rest of the night, we would nonetheless climb the mountain of saw dust, our feet burning as they sunk deep within the hot dust. We loved the mountains where the air was cool and crisp and the smell of pine was strong.

Whether in the mountains or at one of their homes the kids would run and play while the adults visited. Kick the can, capture the flag and games we created with our own imagination filled our time.

It was there in the summers that I tried without success to chew pine gum. Supposedly if you suck on the sap from a pine tree long enough, it softens and you can chew it like gum. Although I tried it every year, I never was patient enough and would always end up with the bitter stuff broken up in bits and stuck to my teeth.

It was there that I learned to ride a tote gote and later learned to drive a pickup over the back roads of the farm.  We hunted for worms to take fishing and walked the fence around my grandma’s house.

It was there that I learned to love carrots and fresh peas. We would stand in my aunt’s garden and pull up the sweet carrots, wash them with a hose and eat them right there. But as much as I loved the carrots, I really loved the garden peas and I still do.

It was there one summer that my cousin taught me how to make cat tail torches. We dipped cat tails (the plant) in gasoline and lit them on fire. Just as he had promised, they made the perfect torch. As the fire died out, we tossed the torch aside and dipped the next cat tail in the gas and lit it. Imagine our surprise when we turned around to discover one of their outbuildings on fire! We ran for the porch where we grabbed the milking buckets and the hose and managed to get the fire out. The charred black scar on the building served as a reminder of our foolishness for years to come.

We rode horses, floated down the canal on inner tubes, went swimming at Splash Land and ate snow cones. To this day blue raspberry snow cones are an essential part of my summer.

Summers were a magical time when we strengthened family relationships and made memories. I am so thankful for those special cherished memories.

Now I am the grandma and it is to my house that the kids and grandkids gather. I hope that someday they will look back at summers and remember how much fun we had together. With that in mind, I am going to take a break in blogging for a few weeks to spend time with family and make some memories (hopefully minus the torches!)

See you next month!

Copyright © Michelle G. Taggart 2015, All rights reserved

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