What a great way to celebrate my 265th post! Another Friday Five!
1. What is your sweetest summer memory from childhood? Did it involve watermelon or hand cranked ice cream? Or perhaps a teen summer romance. Which stands out for you? You know for me I have two memories from childhood that I remember. First, I remember sitting on the curb in front of our house with my mom and sister eating watermelon and spitting out the seeds onto the street. I also remember many warm summer days at the pool with our neighbors. The pool would only open if there was five of us so the four of us would go find and friend so the pool would open for us. I loved spending the summer days cooling off at the pool.
2. Describe your all time favorite piece of summer clothing. The one thing you could put on in the summer that would seem to insure a cooler, more excellent day. You know for me its a pair of shorts or capris and light tanks or tshirts.
3. What summer food fills your mouth with delight and whose flavor stays happily with you long after eaten? There are so many! Sweet corn, watermelon and other summer fruits like peaches, etc. And of course ice cream in its various forms. Sno Cones etc! There are so many foods that I love enjoying in the summer months.
4. Tell us about the summer vacation or holiday that holds your dearest memory. Family vacations hold dear memories for me. But my mission trip with the youth from my church this summer is going to be one of my dearest memories as well. It was such an experience to help the people of Biloxi and that area continue to rebuild from Katrina. Also my trip this summer to see my seminary friend was fun too!
5. Have you had any experience(s) this summer that has drawn you closer to God or perhaps shown you His wonder in a new way? Absolutely. Its hard to put into words what I saw during our mission trip. Those kids were changed in ways beyond what I ever imagined. What an amazing experience!
Bonus question: When it is really hot, humid and uncomfortable, what do you do to refresh and renew body and spirit? Swim, swim, swim! Relax with a good book in some nice air conditioning or enjoy something ice cold! But mostly I just like to live in the water when it’s hot, humid, and uncomfortable!
What a blessing your mission trip sounds like!
And I’m there with you in the pool.
Thanks for playing.
Summer in Yuma… That is like reminiscing about winter in North Dakota. In fact, I have noticed that things slow down in the Midwest during the winter like they do for the summer in Yuma. Cabin fever due to snow or heat is similar with the exception that you don’t have to shovel the heat.
I do have some sweet summer memories, however. As far as food memories go, there was an elderly Hispanic man who would come through our neighborhood on his three wheeled bicycle. On the back was a large ice chest from where he would serve snow cones. A hot cinnamon snow cone was the best!
Also, our subdivision use to have been a citrus grove, so we were able to have a tangelo tree in back that gave us a free abundance of this sweet fruit. I would always have two or three in the refrigerator chilled and ready to eat. I had a paper route that was an afternoon route on the weekdays and a morning paper on Sunday. On the weekdays, nothing was better than coming in from delivering newspapers in 115 degree heat than an iced tangelo.
Favorite summer wear? As little as possible unless you were out directly in the sun, which then necessitated covering up. That is why we went out in the sun as little as possible. Otherwise, it was shorts, t-shirts and bare feet. Even when I had to cover up a bit more to deliver newspapers, I usually just had an emergency pair of flip-flops in my bag in case my bike broke down and I had to cross boiling hot pavement.
Actually, it was amazing that all of us didn’t have third degree burns on our feet or didn’t get bit by a rattlesnake; however, we never really thought about it. My friends and I often made trips to town unshod and no one really cared. We just instinctively found paths in grass, dirt or shady areas. Also, most of us went out to play, socialize when we got older, after sundown when the temperatures would drop under triple digits and the pavement was merely warm as it radiated its stored-up heat. Now that I think about it, the only real sandal footwear back then were flip-flops, which were not great for walks of any length. Probably, if we had Teva’s, Birks, or Crocs back then, we would probably have worn them, although Crocs don’t do all that well in the heat.
Vacations were usually at my grandmother’s cabin in Christopher Creek, Arizona, which is about 6,000’ in elevation among the Ponderosa Pine and much cooler, and where the summer monsoons actually produced afternoon storms each day instead of just making things sticky. In contrast, Yuma would not get many monsoon storms, but when it did, the high heat and humidity would make it a huge one, often blowing down power lines, washing out roads and causing lots of flashfloods.
Summertime was also the time when I was involved with the Anytown, America program, which means a great deal to me but which is also a blog entry of its own.
Thanks for the catalyst for the memories.