The Joys of Summer

Growing up in our little brown house in Twin Falls included enduring the heat of summer. Cherie recently visited us in Austin and one evening when we were driving back to the house I had a clear and sensual memory of being in the back seat of the car on a summer evening in Twin Falls, windows down, licking a soft-serve vanilla ice cream cone. It was a wonderful memory. It got me thinking of other particularly salient memories I have of summer time as a child. My favorite memories of summer include sleeping outside in the back yard, roasting and eating hot dogs, delicious picnics on Grandma and Papa's back yard, finally when Aunt Jean's corn-on-the-cob 'came on', the chlorinated water of the Harmon Park pool, the smelly mineral water of Nat-Su-Pa, going camping, riding bikes, sparklers on the 4th, homemade ice cream (I only remember us making it once or twice but it was so yummy and runny), having to sell the produce from our garden down on the street by going door to door in our neighborhood, going to the basement for relief from the heat (no AC in our house!), having cousins come and visit, being stung by a bee when I was running in the grass barefoot, black snake-like fireworks (left messy sidewalks), a delicious cold pop, beautiful roses and other flowers in Grandma's garden, using paper fans at church, thinking Popsicles were such an awesome treat, and always getting watermelon when the adults got to eat cantaloupe! I'm sure there are MANY more things I'm not thinking of. What comes to your mind when asked, what is a memory you have of summer?