Fun Monday Summer

Today’s Fun Monday is hosted by Jenni at Prairie Air who challenged us by saying:

Your mission, should you choose to accept it:Share one or more of your favorite summertime memories with us. It can be a childhood memory or more recent. The memory can be a vague conglomeration of how you spent summers past (catching fireflies, playing outside till dark, watermelon seed wars) or it can be a detailed memory of a specific event. You may write a poem or short story or just tell it like it was. The main idea is to communicate the essence of summer and what symbolizes the season in words and/or pictures.

For a girl whose favorite season of all is Summer this should be easy. It wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be, it took more thinking than I thought it would. It has started flowing though so watch out, this may be long and it may spill over into the rest of this week. I do not think Pictures can capture what summer is to me, why I love it so much. All of the photos in this post are actual real photos, not digital; all belonging to me taken by me or a family member. Well here are two photos of me taken during my first summer….. a good place to start.

Maybe that is when my love of summer began.

Yes, that is me throwin' my first Peace sign, I've never stopped.

My love of summer was challenged when I was at the tender age of 4 or 5 or 6 when playing badminton with my cousins and was told I had to put my shirt on. It wasn’t proper for a girl to have her shirt off. I was floored. I never understood why I couldn’t be shirt-less, my boy cousins were shirt-less. Why the heck couldn’t I be? I put up such a fight parental and grandparental units were called in and that badminton game was over for the day. That was the start of my becoming a feminist.

Tetherball…. Oh sweet tetherball. Many summer days were spent with my childhood friends playing vicious heated games of tetherball. Oh, the frustration and angst taken out on that poor ball.

Bike riding…. Oh that was a mainstay in my summers growing up. We went everywhere on our bikes. Nearly everyday we would bike to the local pool. I have fond memories of eating chick-o-sticks and drinking Big Red, listening to “Pour some sugar on me” I even vaguely remember some sort of “water dance” my friends and I made up to that song. Is there a dorks anonymous? I need to join.

This picture was taken in the summer of 1983. We all lived on the same block, have been Best Friends since before Kindergarten. We always played outside until it got dark. That’s D. on the left, Fianna is in the middle, and me on the right.

Let’s talk about my favorite sounds of Summer. Cicada bugs, I believe were the inspiration by some kid in 5th grade that came up with a nickname for me. It stuck all throughout the rest of my school career and as you can see, on into adulthood as well. I don’t remember the kid that came up with it but he was smart, I know he did it partly due to my big protruding “bug eyes”, and that was even before I had to get glasses, similar to those of the Cicada bug. I really think he did his research. Wow I have blown way off course. So here is an article about a few of the 17 different cicada species in Kansas. Since I am talking about sounds, you must check out the Cicada’s beautiful song. It is on the left hand side of the page as you scroll down… no need to read the article if you don’t want. Different species of Cicadas have different sounding songs. So please check out the song I love to hear.I love sitting on the porch and listening to their sweet music on summer nights.

My other favorite sound of summer that I could spend hours on the porch listening too is a Kansas thunderstorm. For me there is no thunderstorm like that of a KS thunderstorm. Oh that CLAP followed by those deep rumbles, it gives me chills. The lightning shows are just as amazing! Speaking of lightning…. I LOVE watching Lightning bugs. My youngest Lil’ Man, that just turned 3, caught one just the other night, all on his own. He held it gently in his fingers for at least 10 minutes. Oh yeah, that’s my boy!

2 more sights for today, I know I am getting rather lengthy. I did say this was my favorite season. I really could fill up this whole week with Summer Favorites. My Mom’s parents were wheat farmers. We would go out to their farm every summer for harvest. I loved the smell of wheat; the smell of riding in the bed of the grain truck after taking a truckload to the grain elevator. Eating the wheat hulls that didn’t fall out was so yummy. I loved harvest time. My Grandpa would take me for a ride with him in the cab of his combine. He also gave us grandkids rides in the cab of his tractor and the riding lawn mower. Ahhh the smells of the HUGE shed that the combine and tractors were housed… it was like a mixture of grease, gas, oil, wheat… and I don’t know what else but I loved that smell. Ok so now I am a lil’ sad.

This is a picture of one of my Grandparents wheat fields, that is my Grandpa in his combine harvesting wheat…….. Ahh, those Amber waves of grain!

Finally, for today at least, another favorite sight of summer. This embodies summer for me….



My favorite flower too




One of my Aunts told me something when I left Kansas to live elsewhere for the first time. It is a saying that has been used in different ways to match what it needs…. She said, “You can take the girl out of Kansas, but you can’t take Kansas out of the girl.” Over the years that has become more and more true. I feel it deep in my soul when summer hits. That is when I always go home. I'll save you trouble, There really is no place like home.