Summer Memories-long

Another Tuesday Tell All topic was "Summer Memories" which got me thinking about my summers. Here is what I remember (Granny and Trudy-pipe in whenever you want!)

Visiting Grandparents in Florida

We grew up in North Alabama and my paternal grandparents lived in Florida-they were Yankee transplants from Mass. So every summer we would drive 12 hours to visit them. We would swim in Blue Springs and visit Daytona Beach...this was before "Girls Gone Wild"....it use to be family-friendly!

I believe the main vehicle we drove to FL was our 1978 Datsun station wagon.(this later became the car I drove to school....i LOVED it! it would fly over railroad tracks!) The back seats would lie down and we made a bed back there for us to sleep while Dad drove. I remember thinking we had SO MUCH room with the seats down....which might have been a lot of room for my short self! Another year we drove a "ventura"....that was the year the only cassette we had to listen to was Ray Stevens! The final year we all went to visit Nannie we drove our 1990 Honda Accord(that my parents still drive today). It wasn't a very comfortable drive with 5 adults all scrunched inside! But still worth the drive!

One summer Trudy and I stayed --what seemed to be 6 weeks-- with my "Nannie". She rode 2 days on the Greyhound bus to our house and then we would ride back to FL(another 2 days on the bus) with her. We earned 25 cents a day helping her at her groundskeeper job at the cemetary....we thought we were rich!! I can't remember what we did besides pulling some weeds and picking up the "dead" artificial flowers but we loved helping her. Nannie also had an underground pool and she would never let us eat in-between meals. "You will spoil your supper" is what she would always say if she saw us eating before dinner....and you have to say it with a yankee accent! We would have ice cream every night at 8pm. Every morning we would have cereal, cut-up bananas, and OJ in a small juice cup. I can still see her kitchen with all the newspaper clippings still taped to the cabinets(they are still there I am sure!), our pictures on the fridge, and no counter space! She washed all her dishes by hand and would never let us help. She would always shoo us out of the kitchen when dinner was over. Trudy and I would sleep on cots that were in the living room. I can still see that musical-pull-down-thing that played "tie a yellow ribbon" that Nannie would play as we were going to sleep. Another fond memory of Nannie's house is the smell. Grampie smoked cigars and everything smelled like cigars!

Family Garden

Another memory I have of summer is helping with our family garden....oh how I hated it! there were many times where our whining would earn us a nice slap on the rearend! Our reward for working would be a trip to "Cowford" which was the swimming area on the river. The "waves" were created when a boat would drive by....we thought we were at the beach!! We would wear our jelly-shoes in the water because of the rocks. If we were lucky we would go to Elk River-is that right Granny?- and swim near the boat docks. We loved to "slide" down the boat ramps because they were covered in algae and you really could slide!

Swimming in the Creek

Oh....and Trudy, Frankie(my brother-the oldest) and I loved to go down to the creek behind our house. It was through our woods, over the barbed wire fence and through a cow pasture....but it was super cool! We would bring the garden hoes with us so if we saw a snake we could chop off its head...and we weren't scared to use it!! I remember one time Trudy and her friend throwing big rocks on a snake. We were FEARLESS! There were parts of the creek that were so deep that I could actually swim....but that doesn't mean it was that deep because I am so short....but it was deep for me! It sure didn't bother us that we were swimming in water the cows probably pooped and peed in! Maybe that is what is wrong with us:)

Mama would get so mad at us when we would go to the creek because when we returned (all wet and stinky)we would take off our clothes and leave them whereever they landed. She would find them a few days later....actually she would smell them a few days later. She forbid us from going to the creek but we just couldnt' resist....so we snuck out. But she caught us on our way back! She was so mad she told us to go downstairs and wait for her to come and whip us! I don't know if Frankie was scared but I remember Trudy and I were a little worried! There is nothing worse than waiting for someone to come whip you! So to pass the time we thought of ways to "soften the blow". First we put on lots of pants. Then we thought about putting books in our pants so she would hit the books instead of us(i wonder if we thought she would notice the books??). Then after a while-and no Mama with the belt- I was elected to go upstairs and ask her when she was going to come downstairs and whip us. Thankfully she had fallen asleep and was no longer mad at us! whew!

Report cards

Another summer memory I had was the anticipation of getting my report card in the mail to see if I was promoted to the next grade. I was always anxious about this! Whenever it would come in the mail, I would tear open the envelope and flip that card over to make sure it said "promoted"! I didn't have any reason to worry but I guess no one told me that in order to fail a grade you had to actually make bad grades....I guess I was thinking a student was promoted only if the teacher liked him or not!

That was a fun trip down memory lane!