Summer memories.....

As a rule, summer is a difficult season for me unless I'm at the coast or sitting in an air conditioned home/car. Even then, if there is no ocean breeze, I'm not happy. Today is a perfect summer day. I walked on the deck awhile ago and there is a delicious breeze. The sun is bright in our Carolina Blue sky with big puffy white clouds. I've been a busy person most of the day - catching up on emails, doing Dwight's invoices, had visitors from two separate car groups, email and phone call from neighbor, ordered a padded zero gravity chair ($$$), had a phone conversation with Wally about their convention and how we could work things out for me to be there some of the time, looked up some information on the computer for Carolyn G., watching nervously as she walked across my uber busy road to catch the bus using her walker, called the company Dwight is going to return the suction pump I was using to (woo hoo-so glad I don't have to use that anymore) and made a decision with one of my pioneer sisters about how to handle this week's meetings with the CO. Whew. I am hoping Debbie will have time to take up a few of my dresses she pinned up when she and Ruby cleaned my house yesterday. I gave her a few blouses I had bought new and only wore about twice. She had one of them on today and it looked great with her coloring. The good thing is the three little dresses I purchased last summer don't look too bad. She has to take them up under the arm but they are made to fall from the shoulder loosely. A dear sister in our KH had a beautiful baby girl this week. When I look at this picture on the left I think - man she is going to be as tall as her Mom, Dad and older sister. Then I look at this picture on the right and she looks so little. Hello little Isabella Rose. Three people that I now know with the middle name Rose - my sister, Briana's little girl and now Izzy. She joins her older sister in making a beautiful family of four. Paul and his lovely family are spending the week on the Outer Banks. This will be their son's first trip to the ocean. He sent me a picture of the place they rented and it looks very nice. If I had known ahead of time, we could have worked it out that Dwight was down there visiting GG while they were there. He sent me another picture of Michael in the surf commenting on how he seems to love the ocean and how he didn't get it from him. I told Paul that his Dad loved the water too. One of my earliest memories of him is when he took a running leap in the cold lake water in Chicago. I also told him how his Dad would dive head first into the surf. I think Paul was a little surprised since evidently has never seen his Dad swim. The water at Nags Head can be quite dangerous with the tides. Hopefully Michael is being careful. Such a fearless young man he is. I guess we have been spoiled by living close enough to drive down to the coast in a few hours. I think I was five or six years old the first time I saw the ocean. My parents packed us up in a big old black car and drove down during the night. They had boxes and stuff in the back floor board and I slept on blankets that were laying across them.  My sisters Alice and Faye were in the back seat and my baby sister Amy was asleep in the front with Mama and Daddy. Hmm - I must have been six because I think Barbara was already married.  When I woke up, Faye kicked me and told me to move so she could lay down too.  Bad Faye!  The next time we went it was to the Outer Banks and again we got up and drove during the night. Daddy had rented a house that was supposed to be right across the road from and facing the beach. The key was supposed to be inside the screen door. When we got there and drove up, it was a tiny, ugly, green, cinder block house about three houses back from the beach road facing the other way.  The screen door was hanging off it's hinges. My Daddy was not happy! No body in the car was happy! I think my sisters and Mama groaned. He didn't even get out of the car. He stopped and got us all some snacks to eat and we were sitting outside the realty office when it opened. I don't know what he said but when he came out, he had the key to a nice big beach house right on the ocean and I had the feeling he didn't have to pay more for it. It was nicer than this one and we thought we were in paradise. My oldest sister Barbara caught a ride down and joined us for a long weekend. She was divorced and I think she was still working as an airline attendant. Mama had picture that was taken of her on the beach this trip with her long hair blowing back, wearing a white halter and short shorts. I wonder where that picture is? Another thing I remember about this trip is playing with a little boy who was staying next door and my younger sister on the really big sand dunes behind the house going to the beach. I think my Mom really enjoyed being in a big, pretty house right on the beach but she did NOT enjoy having a grown daughter taking her two teenage daughters and keeping them out too late. She held her breath until she heard them come home hoping fiercely Daddy didn't wake up. When I was a teenager, we went to Atlantic Beach for a week with another family two years in a row. Those were both great trips and Patsy went with us on the last one. That was also the trip when Mama came down to the amusement park and the guy who ran the Ferris Wheel let us ride free for a long time right before the park closed. She always had more fun than any of us when it came to rides. Another memory of those trips is getting too much sun and not being able to sleep until Mama would come in and rub our backs with Jergen's lotion. We all slept on our belly's at night. Ouch! Alice and I didn't burn as bad as my sister Faye did. One time Daddy had me and Faye ride home in the car with Mr. Perry and Faye's nose was peeling.  She got mad and climbed over the car seat, took my barrette our of my long hair and scraped my nose; trying to make it peel.  Bad Faye!  Oh - and I was always amazed at finding sand in the strangest places a week later. Good summer memories......