Childhood Memories

While sitting around a campfire this weekend, I was reminded of all the wonderful things that I used to look forward to during the summer months when I was a child. I knew summer had arrived when my sisters and I ran around outside with no shoes on from dawn until dusk. And on those hot summer days we would get giddy just hearing the sound of the ice cream man’s bell far in the distance. We would wait on the curb, with our dollars in hand, for what seemed like hours. Eventually, we would be rewarded with an Italian Ice or a Nutty Buddy.

My family also spent a lot of time at the beach. We would leave early in the morning in order to stop at Allies Donuts along the way for what was the best and biggest donut I had ever tasted. On the Fourth of July we would stay well after dark and light a campfire. We would toast marshmallows and make S’mores. Nothing beats the taste of a crispy marshmallow with a warm, mushy center smooshed between chocolate and graham crackers. I get chills just thinking about it!

When I think back to all the beach houses we rented and the campgrounds where we slept in tents, I always find it is the little things I remember. Like Kool-Aid mustaches, burying my feet in the warm beach sand, and trying to catch lightning bugs in jars. Now that my babies are growing up (the boys are four and my daughter is nearly two!), I look forward to sharing these little things with them all summer long. I can’t wait to see the smiles on their Kool-Aid stained faces.

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