Susan Senator
All happy families are not alike...
All happy families are not alike...
Summertime Memories
Real Simple is a magazine that has grown on me. I used to call it “Real Nudgy,” but then my sister-in-law, who is Ned’s twin, and is someone I feel very close to even though I don’t see her much, got me a subscription. This made me give the mag a second look. It’s kind of hypnotic with its clean, glossy layouts; the photo spreads are so alluring that they make even housecleaning tips or office organizing look like something you kind of want to do.
They have a feature this month which asks, “What is your favorite summertime memory?” Readers submitted single paragraph descriptions of a moment in summer that was wonderful or a summertime practice they have loved, using powerful and sensory-oriented phrases, like “the smell of the rain when it feel on the pavement on a hot summer’s day,” or “riding my Schwinn bike, with floral banana seat, or course, in the 98-degree Iowa heat with a Popsicle melting so fast it dripped off my elbows.”
This delighted me. I began to think about some of my favorite summertime memories, childhood and adulthood. Here’s what I came up with:
Childhood
Picking blackberries at Montauk Point, Long Island, with my sister, standing on a soft, narrow dune path filled with pale yellow-green pointy beach grasses. The ocean was just over the rise, so you could see it here and there through the grass (I was very small, probably six or seven.). The berries were tart and the seeds stuck in your teeth and filled your nose with their sharp, tangy aroma.
Teenage
Waiting for my date to arrive for the Junior prom (I was a sophomore). He was a very nice young man with wavy black hair and a wide smile and his brother’s Astin sports car. I had the perfect dress: a pale pink Gunne Saxe dress (this one is satin, mine was cotton) with tiny flowers scattered across it. I went to the garden and picked a peony to put in my hair (very long, mid-back, wavy-curly dark brown) and an ant crawled out onto my face!
That’s all for now…off on a field trip with Benj to the beach, of all things (it is 60 degrees and cloudy).
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The same goes for the show. They make it look so easy. I am a fan of Domino magazine as well. It combines household stuff with fashion and home decor. I like these all-around ones. I wouldn’t say I am hooked on magazines. But I do get a lot of brain food for designing clothes. Ever notice that you only really need one year’s worth of a magazine and you pretty much have it all? They repeat everything all the time. Mrs. G
Very good entry on your memories; I can imagine it!
For me, as a child, I remember summertime everytime I see a honeysuckle bush. My sister and I in frayed shorts which my mom had cut from our too-small jeans, long legged and tan. We had a honeysuckle bush in the left part of our yard and we would suck the sweetness.
Everytime I see a honeysuckle now though and I try it, it doesn’t taste sweet at all… so I just admire and remember the utter freedom of summers!
I have several Gunne Sax in a storage box! Remember the lace and tie in the back and the lace up bodice!? The girls today would DIE before they’d encase themselves in one! Thanks for a great memory.
Summer? Riding the surrey bikes in Falmouth Heights. Strawberry Fields Forever played by an older cousin. The sound of the cowbell my Dad rang when it was time for us to quit playing kick the can and jailbreak up the street and return home. The smell of Punk. The smell of a handsome boyfriend on a hot night at Nauset beach. Racing to Newport and Castle Hill in my red Jetta with Madonna blasting. Freedom. Dancing. Frivolity. Joy.
word ver? grlzee. This post reminded me of when I was grlzee.
My favourite summertime childhood memory: I was out for a bike ride along a river with my family, and I had a bad fall from my bike. As my family were fluttering around administering various forms of first aid, my brother came up to me and gave me some wild flowers he had picked near the river. That sweet gesture instantly took away the pain.