Baby Boomer Summers

I have been negligent posting to my blog and I should be ashamed by allowing my hectic schedule to interfere with my blog entries. With summer rapidly approaching I thought I would write a few lines about my favorite time of the year.

As I write this, I am putting the finishing touches on my Memorial Day weekend pool party which will include great food, friends, family, music of all types but especially the oldies from the baby boomer generation. A great party always needs a great mix of music and of course food. I will be preparing a BBQ brisket, Texas style with all the trimmings.

As I was planning this event, my mind wandered back to my childhood days of summers past. I remember long before there were DVDs, CDs, cellphones and so on how we spent our summers, especially the evenings. I recall how we chased and caught fireflies (lightning bugs, as we called them in Ohio) and filled a jar with them. I also can still hear the crickets chirping after dusk as we hid in our favorite hiding spot while playing hide and seek with our neighborhood friends. We would get tons of mosquito and jigger bites but that was part being outdoors. We also played Red Rover. Do you remember that game? Tag "you're it" was a big thing then also. As we look back, our childhood friends may have been our most memorable ones.

We were so much in love with life and the outdoors back then. We climbed trees, got scrapes, bumps and bruises but we survived. Our typical fun for a hot summer day may only have been running through the sprinklers and throwing water balloons but we learned to laugh until our stomachs ached. The only guns we fired at each other were squirt guns. Our only violence at that age was an occasional fist-of-cuffs with our best friend and the next day, all was forgotten and we were pals again. It seemed so much simpler back then. Was it just because we were just kids? I think not. The values and importance of hard work (which for us was taking out the garbage, mowing the lawn, washing the car or doing the dishes) and playing hard made us happy and carefree.

Air conditioning was a luxury back then and I remember most homes did not have A/C. I recall the long hot summer days and the hot summer nights and the times we didn't do anything but lay back in the green grass and gaze at the shapes of clouds and used our imagination of what they seemed to look like. We played into the night until we were tired. Our parents didn't have a cell phone or pager then, so when it was time to come inside they just yelled or whistled from the front or back porch. At night we slept with the windows open and a fan either in the window or on a stand blowing through the bedroom.

We of course matured and grew up into our teens but the summer days and nights were all memorable. Remembering your first kiss and your first date, even your first drive-in movie date brings a smile of fond memories. Cruising, laughing with our friends, spending the day at the pool and the evenings at the teen center was time not to be forgotten. These memories are as vivid as if they had just happened yesterday. What a great period of time to have grown up.

To all my readers: Count your many blessings and let your troubles go by taking some time this summer to lay in the green grass and gaze at the clouds and close your eyes for a moment and slow down, even becoming a child one more time by chasing fireflies with your kids or grandkids. At any rate do take time to love this great life God has given us. Keep in mind how much fun and simpler life was back then. Recapture your youth even if it is for just a short period of time.

Revisit your youth of the baby boomer generation.

Play The 60s Official Site top summer songs of the baby boomer 60s.