If I were still a child, we would be on vacation this week. A drive across the Mackinac Bridge, a trip to the falls, a stop in Paradise and a dip in the icy waters of Lake Superior. THAT, my friend, is a vacation!
We would have already been on many many picnics. My mom would have made potato salad and baked beans and my dad would have gotten the Coleman burner ready for the burgers. We would have used the picnic basket and all the cool brightly colored dishes that it contained. Besides all of the 'friends' picnics, there would have been many 'family' picnics and also the church Sunday School picnic. I'm not a kid anymore, and I haven't gone on one picnic yet this year. I COULD have, I just choose not to go. It's too much work. Really. I don't know how my mom did it, and she seemed happy about it. I'd be happy to GO on a picnic, but not to fix all that stuff.
My summers were spent playing with neighbors. We played 'house'. This involved dragging out blankets to serve as the carpeted rooms. This was usually played at my house, because my older sisters had fabulous junk to play with. Two metal highchairs, wooden bunkbeds, a pink metal refridgerator, a metal stove with cool buttons to push, and a pink metal wringer washing machine. Lots of 'real baby' sized dolls. My summers were also spent putting all this stuff away when my friends parents called them home. In that regard, my life hasn't changed all that much.
I miss going to bed at night listening to Ernie Harwell announce the Tiger baseball games. I could hear the sound of my dad's radio float out the front porch windows and into my bedroom window. Sometimes, when a great play was made (1968 was a good year for the Tigers) I could hear the response from other neighbors on their front porches. Once in awhile the neighbor across the street would play his harmonica. Nice sounds to fall asleep to.
Sometimes, we would all put on our pajamas and go out for ice cream. I always thought this was weird, but I like ice cream, so I went. Of course, we didn't get out of the car, we just gave our order to mom and she brought it to us. Blue Moon is by far the best ice cream in all of the world. Sadly, the fabulous ice cream shoppe across the street from me does not have Blue Moon. Butter Pecan and Mint Chocolate Chip will do in a pinch.
Tonight, I wish I were still a kid. I miss Ernie Harwell's announcing, and I need a vacation.
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2 comments:
It was a whole different kind of life wasn't it? But there were some fun parts to it, for sure. I was a California girl, so we stayed up pretty late and even stayed outside fairly late...till dark. Since it was plenty warm, and no one would molest us in those days, we had a lot of freedoms our kids never had! How does one even describe the whole of it?
Elizabeth
Yeah, I miss it too. But I have small kids and a small budget, so we still do lots of picnics, especially when we're travelling and can't afford restaurants :-)
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