Remembering Summer

I had a very neat childhood. My brothers and that i visited faculty within the town, however nearly each weekend, and holidays and summers, were spent on our beloved grandparents' farm. within the town, I learned to be quite the limited girl. But, on the farm, I might simply BE. So, I had the most effective of each worlds.It's those summers i have been flashing back to lately. I actually have NO plan why! perhaps, i am exhausted. Maybe, it's one in all those, "Stop the globe, I wanna get off," things. perhaps we tend to simply work too damn arduous, and forget to relax and luxuriate in. Or, perhaps we're not ALLOWED to relax and luxuriate in anymore.Now, i do know everybody did not get to pay childhood summers within the country. But, i ponder what percentage individuals bear in mind things like this...Waking up, simply past dawn, to the cool, morning breeze gently lifting the white, "summer curtains" within the bedroom, being attentive to the quail provide their "Bob White!" decision, then heading to the kitchen to gobble the cold oats (not oatmeal - slow-cooked OATS) left for us by Pappy Lee (our grandfather) when he visited the barn to feed the animals.Or, on days after we awakened early, having Pappy build us buckwheat pancakes, topped with pure butter and homemade sorghum syrup, created as solely he might build it.Racing to the barn behind him, dogs at our heels, to assist "feed," jostling one another to ascertain who ought to prime the water pump and to ascertain on any new arrivals, and see if the bull snake, kept for controlling the mouse population, had shed its skin. Then back to the hen house to collect eggs.And, perhaps watch Pappy kill and dress a hen, fastidiously removing any unlaid eggs, to be boiled up with the chicken and homemade noodles for supper (called "dinner" within the city) that evening.Helping Nonny (our grandmother) bake contemporary fruit pies "from scratch," - using LARD - whereas the morning was still cool enough to show the oven on - where the left-over dough was formed with a chicken formed cookie cutter, sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon, with a "red-hot" for a watch, and baked to create the best possible cookies within the entire world.Lying within the grass, watching cumulus clouds lazily creating excellent shapes of animals and different objects as they floated by. Or, hiding out underneath the young Weeping Willow tree, staring up at the leaves, and fantasizing what life would be like after we "grew up."Running through the orchard, selecting fruit off the trees, wiping it off on our garments, and eating it on the spot, while not concern for laundry off any pesticides. Or, snatching strawberries from the patch, or grapes from the vines as we tend to lapsed, and it had been okay to try to to that.Picking flowers from the flower beds, taking them to the house, and laundry the ants off them within the sink before sticking them into a Ball fruit jar, where they presided over the kitchen table with the oil cloth cowl, and therefore the mean cat that might reach out from another chair, and swat our clean, brown legs along with her claws extended, if we tend to dared to sit down down while not trying.Swinging on the tire swing, hung from the large, previous Cottonwood tree within the barn yard, that lightning struck a minimum of once each year.Riding the Indian Paint ponies, whooping like very little savages - bareback - racing the trains on the tracks out behind the farm along the total length of the property, with the engineers waving to us all the method across.Telling my brothers they'd higher not chew that gum while not asking, and laughing thus arduous after they did it anyway, and located out later it had been Ex-Lax."Going to town" on Sunday mornings to the Sunday faculty that taught us to sing "Jesus Loves Me" and "God is Love." And, to the church service afterward, and on Wednesday evenings, where the pastor preached hellfire and damnation.And, appearance for Vacation Bible faculty on a daily basis for 2 weeks within the summer. And, the "Ice Cream Social" at the top, with homemade ice cream being cranked during a churn, and sugar cookies with coloured sugar sprinkles, to celebrate our latest "graduation."Hot afternoons reading books like, "Tom Sawyer" and "Huckleberry Finn." Or, reading and living the Adventures of Peter Rabbit, Reddy Fox, Buster Beaver or Tommy Titmouse. Or, learning new words by doing, "It Pays to extend Your Word Power" in Reader's Digest.Working within the garden, serving to decide vegetables that might be carried to the house and used for supper, or be cleaned for "putting up" - to be used when wintertime came.Shelling peas, or removing the ends of snap beans, whereas sitting on the previous glider out on the screened-in porch, with Nonny telling us stories regarding life back within the "olden days."Or, perhaps sitting with a card table in front of that very same ol' glider taking part in Canasta with Nonny, and invariably believing she cheated.Drying dishes that Nonny washed during a massive metal pan within the sink, whereas Pappy Lee sat within the kitchen, next to his radio, being attentive to a baseball game - or, being attentive to us, as a result of he cared regarding what we tend to had to mention.Heading to the pond with Pappy when supper to fish, watch the dragonflies, hear the circada, and perhaps even catch a turtle on the road, large enough to create turtle soup.Catching lightning bugs and putting them during a jar, with holes punched within the lid, to ascertain if we tend to might get enough to scan by.Watching Nonny and Pappy play Bridge on Friday evenings with Mr. and Miz Roberts, and every one four of them smoking cigarettes, and drinking iced tea, loaded with sugar and contemporary mint (which they shared with us), and no-one worrying regarding second-hand smoke or creating the youngsters hyper-active.And, being fascinated by how Mr. Roberts might keep his cigarette in his mouth whereas he played Bridge, and speak around it, and grow a two-inch ash, and still get it to the club-, or diamond-, or heart-, or spade-shaped ashtray before it fell.Going to sleep in the dark, when a shower with Ivory soap, kneeling beside the bed, reciting, "Now, I lay me right down to sleep...," being attentive to the lonely, quiet, wonderful sound of a train because it whistled its warning far at the crossroads, and anticipating it to pass.And, being attentive to the bull frogs over at the pond. And, smelling the foot-wide white flowers, that bloomed in the dark, on the Moon Vine outside the window. And, lying there facing that window, with simply a skinny cotton cowl, watching a bazillion stars twinkle, as if inviting us to achieve out and bit them, and holding us in awe of the universe. And, feeling thus terribly safe...And, we were.Remember?