As you’re planning your summer and adding items to your summer bucket list, do you ever step back and remember your own childhood summers? If not, take a minute today and do so. You might be surprised at what you recall and how it helps shape your plans for the summer ahead.

I took a little trip down memory lane this morning. Want to come along?  Okay. Here’s what I remember about my childhood summers. I remember…

…going to Baskin Robbins, my mom’s favorite ice cream place. She always got two scoops of Jamoca® Almond Fudge on a sugar cone. I often got pink bubble gum, a pink ice cream with real bubble gum in it—two treats in one. How fun is that?

…playing softball and after the game riding my bike with friends to 7-11 for gumballs and pop. I especially remember the year my sister and her friend coached our team. It was so fun hanging out with my big sister. I was never very good at softball…but that really wasn’t the point. It was all just for fun…and for that bike ride to 7-11 afterwards.

…vacations in the family station wagon with our pop-up camper pulled behind. As the youngest, I always had to sit in the middle between my two older siblings. I was always squished, elbowed, and told to move over (even though there was nowhere to go.) We spent hours in that car seeing 35 of the 50 states, staring out the window and doing nothing but daydreaming about life…Would I marry the boy down the street? Would I have a dead tree in my back yard and use it to hang out the laundry to dry? Who eats all that corn?

…playing cards with my family in the camper and playing Monopoly and Scrunch on the avocado green kitchen table. We did this for hours and hours at a time!

…going to drive-in movies with my sister and her friends. Don’t you miss drive-ins?

…hanging out in the empty lots on either side of our house with my friends…digging to China…making “soup” out of weeds…daydreaming…and doing absolutely nothing but hanging out with friends, talking and making memories.

…swimming at my friend Kathy’s pool. I had one friend with a pool and it was always so exciting when she would call and invite me to come over and swim. What a treat!

…eating fresh raspberries from the garden and enjoying my mom’s strawberry freezer jam. (Yum!) I also remember really tough green beans, beets and bitter lettuce! (Yuck!)

But I think the thing I remember (and miss) most about my childhood summers is going to my grandparent’s lake house. We would swim and float on rafts. We’d lie in the sun for hours (and often I’d end up with a sun burn.) My sister Amy and I would paddle around the lake in inflatable boats. And at night time Grandpa would take us out for pontoon boat rides around the lake. Afterwards we’d sit on Grandma’s couch and look through her many, many photo albums. I loved lazy summer days at Grandma’s house…doing nothing but building memories to last a lifetime.

grandma's lake 1971Me at my grandma’s lake in 1971

As I reflect on my own childhood memories, I realize that the big planned events, like the yearly trips to somewhere in the big green station wagon, definitely make my list of memories. But what I remember—and miss—the very most is time spent with my family and friends doing whatever. It’s funny how the simple, everyday things like bike rides, raspberries and card games—that’s what sticks forty years later. It isn’t so much the activity that holds the memory for me, it’s the people. Spending time with people I love, doing whatever, that’s what summer is really all about. Both then…and now.

So no matter what is on your bucket list this summer, and regardless of if you do just 1 thing on that list or 100—you and your loved ones will be making memories, simply by spending time with together. So let’s go out and make some summer memories, shall we?

Have a great weekend my friends. And if you feel inspired to do so, I’d love to take a walk down memory lane with you. What do you remember and miss about your childhood summers? Thanks for sharing!

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