Country view: Summer fun

Ice cream with Pop

Our summers are bursting with activities. With three busy teenaged children, who all have summer jobs and friends and trips to take, it's a wonder how we ever get to relax at all. But we do. We manage to juggle all of our schedules each summer and take a two or three week trip to somewhere different in the United States. We've been to Yellowstone National Park, Mount Rushmore, Craters of The Moon National Monument, The Astoria Column, and The Lewis and Clark Caverns. We've snorkeled in the Atlantic Ocean and surfed in the Pacific Ocean. We have pictures of mountains and valleys and lakes and oceans and volcanoes and lava beds. We have film of the famous Old Faithful and Painted Mud Pots in Yellowstone. But among all these exciting adventures we go on and spectacular pictures we take, the picture below is by far our favorite summer fun thing to do. Eating ice cream with Pop-Pop.

Even though we have been to many groovy places with Pop-Pop, including Disney Land and the beautiful Mission San Juan Capistrano to see the swallows return, eating ice cream at our local 'mom and pop ice cream stand' is the champion of all activities. The milk for the ice cream comes from the cows on the farm next to the stand and there are goats to feed, too. It doesn't matter what flavor you get, they are all creamy and cold and delicious. The greatest part, of course, is being with Pop-Pop. Always with a joke to tell and a hug to share. This late summer day we all laughed so hard that Pop-Pop's teeth fell out. We'll never forget it nor will we ever forget him. 2008 was to be his last summer. Thanks Pop-Pop for the supreme summer fun memory.

Maria Liloia, Washington, NJ

Summer memories

I remember how the heat monkeys would dance on the pavement in the parking lots of the big chain grocery stores in Mobile, Alabama, on those hot, steamy, summer days. There would be a pile of us 'young uns' waiting in the back of one of my grandpa's pickup trucks. The ones he used for his roofing business had seen a lot of wear and tear. There was nothing left for a bunch of rowdy kids to do much damage to. We would laugh and joke in anticipation of that cool river water waiting for us. The grown-ups would go into the store with a long list of picnic needs and come out with bags and bags of groceries for a day on the riverside or down at the Mobile Bay. There would be several large melons already in the back of the truck, along with the ice-cream maker, lawn chairs, and beach blankets.

My mother is the oldest daughter of thirteen children. When a few of her siblings and their children got together, there was a mini family reunion. The amazing thing was how all the cousins got along so well with one another. Then again, maybe it had something to do with the large leather belt that my grandpa carried, but never used. My grandmother had only to raise her voice slightly to bring an unruly child to order. I remember most how the entire family did summer activities together. I am talking about those long summer days spent splashing into the river from a rope swing, letting watermelon juice run down my chin, and eating ice cream just churned by all the grown-ups taking turns. My grandparents, great-grandmother, aunts, uncles, cousins, my parents, and my siblings would spend an entire day or two camped out along the riverbank or squeezed into the summerhouse at Gulf Shores. We did not watch television. We had not video games, no cell phones, no computers, or any other electronic gadget with which to entertain ourselves.

What my cousins, brothers, sister, and I used to entertain ourselves with was our wonderful imaginations. We built grass huts, made tree forts, or climbed Chinaberry trees for those infamous Chinaberry Wars. We held a fishing pole or lowered crab nets for hours at a time. We sat around a late night campfire and discussed the things that kids discussed, such as favorite teachers, who was cool and who was dating who.

As an extended family, we spent weeks during the summer at Dauphin Island where the kids hung out on the porches that surrounded the beach house. We had a sense of security given to us by loving adults who passed along a strong set of values and morals that came from their parents and grandparents. As children, we enjoyed an innocence afforded us by loving adults who knew how much of life's inter-workings to reveal and what things would only cause and us needless worry. We were country people. We enjoyed a country way of life. My family recognized the need to get away from the everyday and play together as a way to stay connected.

All the cousins and younger aunts and uncles are all married with grandchildren of our own. We are still country people with country values that we continue to share with each new generation. We still see the value of going to the beach together as an extended family. The places we visit during the summer may have changed a little, but the play is still the same. We still hang a pole in the water, dip a few crab nets, build sand castles, and chase each other through the hot sand. We still pack a picnic lunch, throw a watermelon into the edge of the cool waters, and set up the ice-cream maker for some homemade strawberry ice cream.

Bar-B-Que ribs, potato salad, homemade pickles, burgers on the grill, gallons of sweet tea poured over quickly melting ice, fresh fruit, and family, these are the memories I hold dear. These are the memories I am passing on to those I love so they will have something to pass along when I become a summer memory.

Barbara Stanley, Blairsville, Georgia

Summer by the pond

Shortly after moving into our home on five acres, my wife and I decided that the former farmland was just too flat around the house. To improve the appearance, we decided to add some character by adding berms and elevation changes in a few areas. The common method in the neighborhood to obtain additional soil was to dig a pond. After a week of bulldozer's and earthmovers running around the property, we had a big hole in the ground. Toss in a fall, winter, and spring of rain and snow and we were the proud owners of a half-acre pond.

Now we just needed a few supplies. We had a couple of kids running around the house already. A trip to the local feed store when the "fish truck" was in town added blue gill for fishing. The marine supply store supplied an inflatable rowboat. Add a water-loving breed of dog (golden retriever in our case) and the kids will stay busy. A lawn chair, some tree shade, and a radio-controlled sailboat from the local hobby shop is all it takes to keep Dad occupied. Mix all this together in the pond and you have summer fun at our house!

K. Gustafson, South Rockwood, Michigan