Remembering Summer as It Once Was

[Adam's Apple]

How well I remember summers just about like this.

Give Me That Old-Time Music of Living
By Tom Purcell, The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
July 23, 2006

It's July and I'm longing for the sounds of summer I knew as a kid.
In the '60s and '70s, you see, only one or two houses in our neighborhood had air conditioning. Most neighbors kept their windows open, allowing the outside sounds to come in and the inside sounds to go out.

I woke every morning to the birds chirping outside my window screen, a dewy chill in the air. I'd smell the Big Guy's pipe, which he smoked while he read the paper. I'd go downstairs to greet him. Sometimes he'd make scrambled eggs and toast smattered with butter, and we'd eat while the birds kept on singing.

The evening sounds were equally powerful: a dog barking; a motorcycle downshifting on some faraway hill; people out on their porches listening to the Pirates' play on the radio; a baby crying; a couple talking; children laughing; a window fan humming.

Sounds carry far in the summer air. One family on the hill -- they had three adult kids still living at home -- entertained the whole neighborhood with their cussing and bickering:

"You're an idiot!" one would shout.

"No, you're an idiot!" said another.

"Shut up the both of youse!" the old man would yell. He told our next-door neighbor once he couldn't understand why his "damn kids cussed so damn much, the idiots."

The sounds I miss the most, though, were the shouts and chants and bells that families relied on to call their kids home for supper.

In those days, kids didn't participate in one adult-run activity after another. We didn't sit inside air-conditioned homes playing video games. No, we were out in the hills roaming and exploring and creating all day long.

We collected scrap wood and built shacks. We damned up the creek and caught minnows and crayfish. One summer, we built a motorized go-cart with some scrap items from a junked riding mower and a couple of two-by-fours. It was one of the great engineering feats in my neighborhood's history.

for full article:
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/columnist/purcell/s_462866.html

 

[Nienna]

In those days, kids didn't participate in one adult-run activity after another. We didn't sit inside air-conditioned homes playing video games. No, we were out in the hills roaming and exploring and creating all day long.

We collected scrap wood and built shacks. We damned up the creek and caught minnows and crayfish. One summer, we built a motorized go-cart with some scrap items from a junked riding mower and a couple of two-by-fours. It was one of the great engineering feats in my neighborhood's history.

That's the kind of summer I remember.

 

[dilloduck]

That's the kind of summer I remember.

Me too---I miss em!

 

[Nienna]

Me too---I miss em!

Except we called 'em "crawdads."

 

[Mr. P]

At least one month every summer, why don't we cease every structured activity, cancel every tournament and end every adult-run event. Let's turn off the television and computer. Let's shut down the air conditioner and unshutter the windows and doors.

Let's allow our kids to go out into the hills to roam and play and discover all day long. This will require us to call them home at dinner.

If only.

 

[Joz]

I spent my summers with Grandma. In the evening we'd sit out on the front porch swing & drink iced tea. People came just for her tea. And sometimes we'd walk Topper and stop at the ice cream stand. The bedrooms would be so hot with nothing but the window fan to give you relief. And the summer lasted.....

Now as soon as school is out, there's school supplies back on the store shelves.