Reed's Remember Summertime

Remember when summertime was all you waited for? School was over - warm evenings filled with lightning bugs and sleepovers at Grandma’s were all that lay before you. Popsicles, 4^th of July fireworks, sandy beaches and summer vacations were waiting to tempt your tongue and tickle your toes.

You spent your days playing in the yard, climbing trees, driving your mom crazy, running through the grass with your dog, weeding the garden (not fun when you’re 12), and hoping you’d get to go to A&W for supper and get a root beer float.

As you got older summer meant hanging out with friends, cruising for girls, trying to find enough money to go out on a date and washing your hotrod (which most likely was the family’s four door sedan or a Pacer).

I love summer, always have. Going to the beach, whether the ocean or the local swimming hole, is the highlight of any summer vacation. All of us on my wife’s side of the family vacation over the 4^th of July in Kitty Hawk, NC. It doesn’t get much better than this – beach, family, children, great food and sunburns (did I mention food). There is nothing we really have to do. Somehow, no matter what happens, Cooper always gets blamed for it (family joke).

Next week is the first day of summer. 21 June, the longest day of daylight in the northern hemisphere. Seems like we should have a holiday surrounding this day. To me it is what it’s all about – carefree times and that ache to be 21 again.

This year, at 12:26 p.m., remember the ‘longest day of the year’ and reflect on a warm summer’s day not so long ago …