Summertime and the living is sleazy in the MMP

Self-explanatory title, I guess. I’m too tired to be excessively clever, not that the topic matters anyway, right?

So let’s talk about summers when we were kids and didn’t know or care about responsibilities. Good times…

Happy Moanday!

One year when I was about middle school age, I had a great summer plan. I made a list of things to do each day: getting up early, exercising, doing my chores, having a good breakfast - honorable goals, all. The first day, I accomplished everything on my list in record time. I was up and dressed and ready for the day, except it was still stupid early and no one else in the neighborhood was up. I was BORED!!!

There was no day 2. I was a great one for planning, but the execution part left a bit to be desired. :smiley:

First other than MOOOOOOM! It’s good to be juvenile! :smiley:

Good Mornin’ Y’all! Up and caffeinatin’. YAWN ‘Tis 71 Amurrkin out with a predicted high of 87 and cloudy accordin’ to the weather PTB. We shall see. this is my last day of vacation. Le Sigh. Actually I’m ready to go back to irk.

I am a Summer baby so I loves me some Summer. This led to much consternation when I became an adult cause that meant I had to do stuff like irk on my birthday! No fair! I did, however, get over the fact.

Ok, that’s all I got. I need more caffeine and to feed rumbly tummy. Then onward into the day! Today we are goin’ to da burg to eat at a really good [del]hog trough[/del] buffet place and also stop by the tax and tag office so I can renew my car tag which I must do before my birthday. Rah.

Happy Moanday Y’all!

Blurf, Moanday edition.

When I was a kid we’d spend some time at my grandparents’ house out in the country in Ontario. They lived in a big house on a lake, and you could go swimming or boating. They had a Smarties machine and a cat and a dog. We’d see many of our relatives. Good times.

Ooooh, a tag-team MMP, I like it! Doggio, please hurry up & post so we can finish the sleazy part of the OP! :stuck_out_tongue:

This weekend was relaxalatin’ but I have already spent my last weekend of this month in my house; NY, PA, & NJ the next three.

Next poster, tag team with “hot”…

Summers were the best when I was a kid. We’d ride our bikes all day, drink out of neighbors’ garden hoses, stay out until dark playing tag and hide-and-go-seek. I’m sure we ate lunch, but I don’t remember going in the house much. There is no way I can do that now! It’s too hot!

On the 4th of July week my parents would rent a beach house at Surfside Beach, and we would swim and go fishing and crabbing. I would swim in the Gulf so much, when I lay down to sleep, I could still feel the waves on my body.

Is there a word for that feeling?

Oh - hi everybody! I’m Rebo. :wink:

My summers as a kid described to a T. Truth be told, not much has changed as an adult :-/

Moving a little early today - another coworker died suddenly yesterday, so we’re all a bit shellshocked.

He was out of town visiting relatives and apparently died while running, so I assume it is cardiac related. The other fellow had died at home probably from a blood clot secondary from having nearly been killed in a pedestrian hit & run accident last year. His too was unexpected since he had seemed to be improving so much. Both were good people who will be missed.

So it’s not really coincidence that I’m getting caught up on retirement & estate planning.

I’m glad we got through the holiday without stupid stuff happening in DC (beyond the usual).

{{giggity}}

I remember going to the pool when I was but a wee kitten. The pool was a big galvanized bucket. I’d fill it up with the hose and sit in the water. No swimming, but there was some splashing. Sometimes I’d take my toys out there and play lake. There was a pinhole on one side so there was a tiny fountain coming out the side until the water level dropped. Then the most fun part: tipping it over and watching all the water come out! This was back before I was ten, so making a huge mess was a bonus, even if all I was doing was watering the lawn.

I realize this make me sound like I grew up in dirt poor in a trailer park. I really didn’t. I just never had one of those plastic wading pools. Didn’t need one, I had a bucket. :smiley:

My condolences; we spend so much of our lives at work that we sometimes forget that we see the people there as much, if not more, than we do our families…so sudden deaths in the workplace can be more upsetting than we think they will be.

Good to get caught up on your planning, I’ve been doing that for the past year, getting ready for the August 2016 planned retirement date. Have you also done a Will yet? I finally got around to doing mine this year (at age 62-of course, with only one surviving relative, my brother, it was a pretty simple thing).

Otherwise, it’s Monday. BLURF. Tired from mowing the lawn yesterday in the heat (wanted to finish before the Women’s World Cup Final (Yeah USA!!)) and got five full bags of cuttings. Also put together my new computer chair (big office-type leather chair). Just to make it extra hard, I lost the special wrench they send along to put in the boths and had to use one (almost fit) that I had laying about.

Summer vacations, FCM? Lots of swimming when I was young, some travel with family (we had a batchelor uncle that took us on several long trips West when we were young, family vacations were more local–Washington DC was the biggest one). Funny, I hardly ever go swimming these days…

Well, to work (such as it is and what there is of it).

Up, caffeinated, off work today. I shall go to the laundromat. I dreamed I overslept, and was late for work. Then woke up, and wasn’t sure if I was late for work. Then I realized I was off so I went back to bed. Then I slept later than I wanted to.

We used to visit my grandma in Alpena. MI every other summer, to escape the heat in N.C. Except the one summer, when it was 92, and there was no AC. Hot.
Spidey, I don’t like the term “sleazy”. I prefer “morally flexible”:smiley:

Hey Rebo!

Welcome, kbear! We’ll have to come up with a Mumper nickname for you.

I’m sorry. 2Gig, that sucks.

BLURF
Most of my childhood summers were spent with friends, at the community pool or at the park. My teen & college summers were spent working for the Park District, so you could say that those summers were also spent at the pool or park.

I did spend two weeks one summer at a Girl Scout camp, and two whole summers at a Jewish camp in the Berkshires. Those were good summers. Unfortunately, our family finances did not allow for me to return after that.

I was always a little jealous of Fluffy’s summers. They live in Brooklyn (always have), so their summers were spent a bungalow colonies in the Catskills.

Now, summer is just like the rest of the year, except for the humidity and lack of snow.

::tackle hugs Rebo::

One thing that ever summer weekend featured until I left home (and even after for the rest of the family…) My grandparents had a lot on the Magothy River, between Baltimore and Annapolis. They bought it in the 40s, and my grandfather built a little wooden shack/shed for storing swimming toys and folding chairs and the outboard for the boat, as well as having 2 big barrels - one for swimsuits and one for towels. As you outgrew your swimsuits, they were added to the stash. That way, when visitors showed up, we could usually find a suit so they could swim, too!

There were 3 wooden picnic tables - my grandparents got the one that had the roof over it. There was also a hammockhung between 2 trees next to the shack. There was sand to dig in, tubes to float in, and until it rotted, a pier to jump off of. We’d go crabbing, we’d take the boat to the end of the river (maybe a quarter of a mile away) or we’d paddle our floats to the public beach on the opposite shore. There’s be sammiches for lunch and burgers and dogs on the grill for supper. My grandmother planted a small veggie patch, so we’d even have fresh tomatoes!

In the early 70s, my grandfather managed to get a permit to put in a cabin with electricity and a bathroom, and a basement underneath for more storage. There was a small hot plate, a fridge, and a small TV inside, plus some miscellaneous furniture. I spent a couple of nights there alone before I left for bootcamp.

Sadly, as my grandparents got too old to deal with the place, they had to sell it. I understand my grandfather offered to sell it to my folks, but by that time, they weren’t interested in dealing with it either, and we sibs weren’t yet financially able to afford the place. Plus I wasn’t even living in the area. So it left the family. No more going “down the shore.” But it was great when we were kids!

PS: Welcome back, Rebo!!!

Like most kids, I ran around all summer, coming into the house for lunch and my bathing suit, then running outside again. I have fond memories of loading up my bicycle basket with library books and spending the hottest days inside reading. Of course my mom wanted me outside. For a few years we had a cottage in Dowagiac Michigan which was no fun for me since there were no kids my age (they were all older). Did a lot of babysitting in the evenings. My favorite gig was the one with all the Agatha Christies.

At some point, in my late teens, I decided that heat and humidity were not my friends. Ever since then I’ve pretty much disliked summer. When I had Bob the Wonder Pony I spent almost all my free time with him, out in all sorts of weather, and I hated summer the most. I no longer hate it, but it’s my least favorite season.

Best part of summer? A dinner of fresh sweet corn, cantaloupe (or watermelon), and tomatoes. The triumvirate of nummy in the tummy.

Phase Two of the sprog’s summer adventures is underway. He’s at my parents’ house for a ten-day visit. Once he gets back, he will have to keep himself entertained until school starts again. He’s in this uncanny valley where he’s too old by age but still OK by grade level, so most of the stuff he wanted to do, he couldn’t. He’ll be fine next year when he’ll be in a higher age band.

I’m stiff. When we got home from the airport, I promptly passed out. Target was sitting on me, so of course I didn’t want to disturb her. I can’t move now. :frowning:

My favorite times were when all the cousins would return to the Edwardsville area and we’d basically have the entire clan running around and going nuts. It would only happen like once every three to five years when all the branches managed to get vacation at the same time and the last one was way back when I was maybe 20 or so; they were more common the younger I was. In my family I’m the shy quiet and backward one so with 20 or more of us kids across say a 15 year span, and with all of us having crazy ideas, and with having enough people to follow through on those crazy ideas ---- it was just flat-out kicking.

The one summer we decided to head out the back of the old family farm and build a cabin in the woods. I guess the oldest of “us” was about 19 and the younger ones around 5. We went the full notched logs route, cut shakes for the roof. And screw the normal 6x6 “clubhouse” kids build - this thing was the size of an actual house and had two defined rooms and a loft. We named it the Ponderosa of course. The “grown-ups” left us alone (although I’m betting one or two sorta checked on us from a distance now and then) for the 4 or 5 days we worked on it but when we finally let them come check out our work, they were honestly impressed. That became home base for the rest of the summer as relatives drifted in and out of the Valley. That fall the adults took over the Ponderosa, added an actual floor and a better door, and turned it into a deer camp. It’s been repaired some but the thing still stands like 50 years later and serves as a hunting camp for all and sundry among the relatives.

Which has often caused us to joke among ourselves – just who’s idea was it in the first place? Ours or Uncle Andy’s and some of the other grown-ups? It was a fun project but in the end the adults got more use from it than we did. We seem to recall one of them suggesting the location (back edge of the property) but --------- the rest is lost to time, the natural confusion we usually operated under, and old age.

One other warm memory – my uncle I was named after kinda. Yeah - in my crew even names aren’t that easy. Sometimes the story was that I was named for my grandfathers - first name for one and middle name for the other. And that could be. But by luck of the draw that also ended up being the exact name of one of Dad’s brothers. So pick whatever explanation you want.

Well, Uncle Kopek was a bachelor with a really great job working for the Air Force which he had served in before that for 30 years. He based himself out of Dover and would take 10 days vacation every year to visit back home. His usual deal was to borrow this huge van from his church when he was making the visit.

Now around the Valley back then you had a lot of amusement parks - Knoebels, Dorney, Rocky Glen, Hansons, Nay Aug, Bushkill, Sans Souci and more. What Unc would do is have us kids pick 5 parks and he would load us all up and we would visit one a day. He gave us all a roll of dimes each for the week for playing games and such, packed picnic lunches, and gave us some tickets and just let us go. It was basically three core branches, 10 kids who were tight with each other, and we had some great times. And just him to run herd on this gaggle of energy. He used to teach us how to beat the games or at least judge if they could be beaten. He was a “service trained” engineer and always said anything a man could design, another man could beat if he just watched it operate for a bit. It was great seeing these (basically) carnies drop their cigarettes when three or four of us in a row would come up and walk away with the big prize. And the “joy” on our parents faces when we got home at the end of the day. (Unc was the oldest and could pull rank when he had to) Those are some great memories.

Now-adays I still do the basic thing with the rollercoaster group (ACE) but I always joke them - “Dude, my family was ACE 25 years before it was invented”.

Today’s accomplishments:

[ul]
[li]Dishes washed[/li][li]Grocery run done[/li][li]3 packs of ground beef made up and popped in the freezer[/li][li]Fabric cut out and labeled for a motorcycle-related project[/li][li]Cat box cleaned[/li][/ul]

Now, I’m going to assume the knit position and watch me some NCIS. NOT the sorts of things I did in the summer as a kid…