Summer Fun

Thought:   July 2, 2014

I remember the summer days of my youth.  We didn’t have toys, video games, computers, the internet or any talking books or videos or DVDs.  We were not allowed to watch television during the day and rarely at night during the week.  However, we did get to watch some television on Saturdays if it rained.

So you might ask, “How did we entertain ourselves during the summer months when school let out?”  Simply put:  We used our imagination and had the great outdoors as our playground.  The older siblings took the responsibility of making sure the younger brothers and sisters were having fun.  From day to day, we never did know what the agenda would be.  All we knew was that we would be playing outdoors!

Believe it or not, we were never bored.  We went into the fields looking for rabbits, into the woods looking for salamanders under rotting logs and pollywogs in the brook near the side of the house.  We never did find rabbits but we did manage to find salamanders and spent hours down by the brook looking for anything that moved in the water.

Our parents did not spend money on entertainment or give us money to buy anything to entertain ourselves with.  So if we wanted to have fun during our summers, we played together, created together and kept a united front where all of us would take part in whatever we found to do and enjoyed the works of our imaginations. 

What about you?  How do the memories of your summer days when you were young compare to what your children do for fun in the summertime today?  Share your thoughts with us…Jeanne Claire Probst

Poem:  Summer Fun

Excitement is in the air

Smiles can be seen on faces everywhere...

Summer weather to be enjoyed by all,

Until the weather changes come fall.

Biking, hiking, sailing;

Baseball, soccer, golfing,

Picnics, day trips, long weekends to come,

Some fun thing to be enjoyed by everyone.

Lemonade, ice tea, ice coffee,

Watermelon, popsicles and ice cream;

Delicious things we love to eat,

Who doesn’t love these summer treats.

Sunburns, mosquitos, mayflies

Allergies, bee stings and other bug bites,

Soon these will be memories our hearts will hold,

To be told when sipping our hot tea when the weather starts

 to get cold.

Jeanne Claire Probst