Memories of summer

By: 
Patrick Fisher, The New Prague Times

Even though technically summer doesn’t officially start until June 20, nothing says its summer than temperatures in the high 80s or low 90s with lots of humidity.

Like many Minnesotans summer carries a lot of memories for me. A time for biking around the neighborhood or, when older, going all around town, walking down to the local small grocery store and getting ice cream or the excitement upon hearing the chimes of an ice cream truck in the neighborhood. I think most of us had a small swimming pool that our parents set up. Some were like a really large balloon that had to be blown up, others were a hard, yet flexible plastic. During really warm weeks those pools didn’t move from where we set them up in my family’s yard. It usually resulted in a round patch of brown or sickly yellow grass.

Since our family had one of the biggest yards in the neighborhood it was a gathering spot for most of the children and teens. We had pick up games of baseball, keep away, Red Rover, and Duck, Duck, Goose. I can tell some are surprised and thinking, “It’s Duck, Duck Grey Duck!” What can I say, expect it was Goose where I grew up in northwest Minnesota.

It was a time when about the only electronics any of us had might be a small portable radio. There were no cellphones or other items. We stayed out as long as we could, being called in for dinner, and then trying to squeeze in a couple more hours of play.

Occasionally after dinner our family piled into the station wagon and headed to the movie theater. Other times it was a Saturday afternoon. Mostly we would get a small popcorn and maybe a small soft drink.

Other weekends were spent on camping trips to local sites. We had a pop up camper that was for mainly sleeping in. While it had a small gas stove, we did most of the cooking over a campfire.

Hopefully people can enjoy something like that this summer.

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