memories of summer
Aug. 12th, 2012 06:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
archersangelreading this post over at wil wheaton's blog got me thinking about the summers i had growing up. although his were more interesting.
i too splashed in a plastic pool on the lawn & often got unburnt. we always had a garden, that someone once sneeringly called a postage stamp, although it was a good sized plot. (we never claimed to be produce farmers)
every tuesday & thursday a bus would go pass our house (funded by the near-by city, i think) that stopped in a couple villages, as well as in town and at the mall. it was cheap (i think it was 1 dollar for adults, 50 cents for kids 6-12 & free for under 6) & we often went both days. usually alternating between the mall and town.
the mall was (and still is) nothing fancy, but we'd sometimes go see a matinee at the 4-screen (now a 6-screen) movie theater & mostly window shop. sometimes we'd eat breakfast or lunch at the "5 & dime" type place, with rather horrific bathrooms that they had the nerve to charge a dime to get into. (mom would hold the door for others to go in) on the end of the mall was a department store that had a snack counter that served ice cream. a candy store in the middle of the mall had ice cream too. sometimes we'd get a book at waldenbooks (which was bought by borders, which is now out of business) maybe some clothes or shoes as needed. ETA: after the furniture store (& 1 or 2 near-by one stores) there closed, they put in a food court with an arcade. dropped a few quarters in there. and when a restaurant elsewhere in the mall closed, that was made into an arcade (with a star trek: the next generation pinball game)as well so for several years there were two. sacrificed several quarters there too. sometimes a quarter or two was found in them, which was cool. the food court & both arcades are now gone.
town didn't have much to offer. the bus left you off at the greyhound bus station that had seen better days, with very horrific bathrooms (that you didn't have to pay for). (in fact it was torn down and made into a parking lot when i was about 7 or 8) the one redeeming feature was a pinball machine. to keep us busy, mom would drop a quarter in it, i would hit one flipper button, my brother would hit the other one & we did pretty good. sometimes we'd draw a crowd because people couldn't believe that two little kids could do that well. true story.
the really only good thing in town was the library. once i started school and got a library card (that the school district paid for. they dropped that after awhile) we'd check out books from the kid section on the top floor or more often than not, just read a book while we were there. sometimes we'd get snacks and have a "picnic" in the little garden behind the library. it was sadly neglected, but shady.
mom had a sister that was obsessed with antiques, both buying & selling them. so, most weekends were spent being dragged to every garage/yard sale, flea market, estate sale & auction in the tri-state area. and when we weren't doing that we went to the big mall near the big city north of here for stuff for her spoiled grand-kids. well, it was somewhere to go & something to do. even though i grew weary of it as a child and kind of, sort of, almost nearly miss it now.
i too splashed in a plastic pool on the lawn & often got unburnt. we always had a garden, that someone once sneeringly called a postage stamp, although it was a good sized plot. (we never claimed to be produce farmers)
every tuesday & thursday a bus would go pass our house (funded by the near-by city, i think) that stopped in a couple villages, as well as in town and at the mall. it was cheap (i think it was 1 dollar for adults, 50 cents for kids 6-12 & free for under 6) & we often went both days. usually alternating between the mall and town.
the mall was (and still is) nothing fancy, but we'd sometimes go see a matinee at the 4-screen (now a 6-screen) movie theater & mostly window shop. sometimes we'd eat breakfast or lunch at the "5 & dime" type place, with rather horrific bathrooms that they had the nerve to charge a dime to get into. (mom would hold the door for others to go in) on the end of the mall was a department store that had a snack counter that served ice cream. a candy store in the middle of the mall had ice cream too. sometimes we'd get a book at waldenbooks (which was bought by borders, which is now out of business) maybe some clothes or shoes as needed. ETA: after the furniture store (& 1 or 2 near-by one stores) there closed, they put in a food court with an arcade. dropped a few quarters in there. and when a restaurant elsewhere in the mall closed, that was made into an arcade (with a star trek: the next generation pinball game)as well so for several years there were two. sacrificed several quarters there too. sometimes a quarter or two was found in them, which was cool. the food court & both arcades are now gone.
town didn't have much to offer. the bus left you off at the greyhound bus station that had seen better days, with very horrific bathrooms (that you didn't have to pay for). (in fact it was torn down and made into a parking lot when i was about 7 or 8) the one redeeming feature was a pinball machine. to keep us busy, mom would drop a quarter in it, i would hit one flipper button, my brother would hit the other one & we did pretty good. sometimes we'd draw a crowd because people couldn't believe that two little kids could do that well. true story.
the really only good thing in town was the library. once i started school and got a library card (that the school district paid for. they dropped that after awhile) we'd check out books from the kid section on the top floor or more often than not, just read a book while we were there. sometimes we'd get snacks and have a "picnic" in the little garden behind the library. it was sadly neglected, but shady.
mom had a sister that was obsessed with antiques, both buying & selling them. so, most weekends were spent being dragged to every garage/yard sale, flea market, estate sale & auction in the tri-state area. and when we weren't doing that we went to the big mall near the big city north of here for stuff for her spoiled grand-kids. well, it was somewhere to go & something to do. even though i grew weary of it as a child and kind of, sort of, almost nearly miss it now.
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Date: 2012-08-13 01:30 am (UTC)Helping Dad shuck corn-on-the-cob that we bought at a farm stand run by one of his relatives. Dad grilling ribeye steaks, and eating them at a table in the backyard. I never did like the taste of charcoal much, so I'd dump ketchup all over my steak. Playing badminton in the backyard with my big brother. "Can't we just hit the birdie back and forth for a while? SPIKE "Aw, wouldn't it be more fun to just bat it around..." SPIKE "Come on, please?" SPIKE
Riding my bike with a transistor radio looped over the handlebars. The neighbor's little pool, which was bigger than the tiny pool before that one. Freaking out when I saw a cicada for the first time. The ice cream truck. Reading a book on the front porch. A bunch of neighborhood kids playing Duck Duck Goose in the alley. One of my parents shouting my name when it was getting dark and time to come home from whatever house I was playing at. The J C Penney company picnic.
How dirty the water would be when my mother washed my hair in the sink. Sitting in a barely lukewarm bath on outrageously hot days, playing with little plastic soldiers, trying to get them to float on a bar of Ivory soap. Blowing fuses all the time when the window A/C was running. "Can I watch TV? "No, your mother's ironing."
Dad and my brother shirtless at the supper table. Me, too, until suddenly those days were past. Summer replacement shows on TV. Wow, those are long gone, along with the variety shows they replaced! The only example I can think of was The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour replacing The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour for the summer.
Okay, I guess I remembered quite a lot. :-)