summer

As summer is unfolding into autumn,
I seem to be drawn into Mema's memories.
I can't tell you how often she talked about
her summers in the country.

She gets a peaceful, happy look on her face,
as though she is transported back to the
happiest times of her life.
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"Oh, we used to all walk to town in the summer,
following Dad and his popcorn machine to the park.
He sold bags of popped corn for a nickel.

Bands would play in the center gazebo.
It was always a different band playing every week.
Sometimes school bands,
or just a few people playing a fiddle and singing.

My brother and I would walk a few blocks through town
and buy a huge ice cream cone for a nickle."

(everything seemed to be a nickle or quarter back then in her memory,
and she likes to tell how they turned corners through the streets
to get to the ice cream, as though she could see it in her mind's eye)

"We would get big old scoops in the cone
and walk back to the bandstand,
happily trying to lick it all before it dripped to the ground.

All the neighbors would gather in the front yards,
the kids playing games and racing around.
Every week we would gather around for big reunions of friends.
Sometimes Daddy would sell popcorn, or nuts, or cotton candy.
and even ice cream.

I remember going to stay the week with my Daddy's brother
who lived in town.
Oh, he had a big house right on the street.
It had a front porch with a swing.
I would sit there for hours,
waving to all the passing cars, as if I lived there.
I felt so rich.
We went out to eat dinner every night,
because my aunt didn't cook at all.
She was kind of stingy,
but my uncle was so nice.
They had one daughter,
but she was kind of snooty like her mom,
so I usually was by myself the week I visited.
And I loved every moment.
Having brothers and a sister on the farm,
with chores to do, and noise all the time,
it was a treat for me to visit.
I was the only one in the family
who would stay with them in the summer.

My uncle sold nuts to the vending machines around town.
When ever he was on his rounds, he would stop at our house.
If he was alone,
he would tell me to go get the biggest bowl I could find,
and then he would fill it to over flowing with nuts.
Now, if my aunt was there, we would only get a handful of nuts,
and only if she was in a good mood!"


Mema is living in Florida now, with her youngest daughter.
I miss her so much and miss hearing the stories from her past.
Remembering the summer stories,
makes me wish I had grown up in the thirties and forties,
when times were simple, people were simple.
You didn't have hardly anything,
but you were happy with what you had,
and you made do,
and life was good.

Seeing how loving and wonderful my grandmother is,
underscores that the simple life made her that way.
She was not spoiled with electronics,
shopping, free time to get bored.
I love that little lady!