It is almost April here in Central Pennsylvania, but continues to snow and temperatures continue to remain in below freezing range.

In light of that, I think it is safe to say that a majority of people are desperate for summer and the warmer months to hurry up and get here already. I, for one, am so excited to be home for summer because summer holds some of the best memories of home for me.

The Community Pool

In the early years of any Perkasie-born kid, Holiday House Pool literally was the location of one’s entire list of summer activities. All year long, we would look forward to that one day in late May when the pool opened for the summer. This meant that after school for the final two weeks of the year could be spent entirely at the pool, getting everyone into that summer mind mode that makes the last few weeks of grade school just a fun time to watch movies.

The pool is nothing special, and Adult Swim was the worst thing to ever happen because it lasted a whole hour, which made the snack stand line unbearably long and made the pavement section with the sprinklers so crowded that it wasn’t even fun. However, it was the place where immediately, everyone became friends and no one was bored. I know that in my family of six kids, we always got along at the pool and rarely tried to drown each other. My mom took us there virtually everyday because she said we overwhelmingly clung to her less when we were at the pool with all our neighbors, etc.

 

Neighborhood Games

If you didn’t spend your summer nights playing Manhunt in the neighborhood with every other kid, then honestly I think you missed out. The day basically went like this: get ready and go to the pool to play Marco Polo with all your friends, go home and eat dinner, play tag or Red Rover or something outside until it gets dark around nine pm, and then raid your garage to find a flashlight so that you could participate in Manhunt and flashlight tag. Go to bed and repeat until September. 10 Summer Outdoor Games 

 

Bonfires

Like I mentioned in previous posts, it’s illegal within most cities to have outdoor fires in fire pits and such. But being in the suburbs makes that a non-factor. Sitting on old deck chairs, using actual sticks for marshmallow roasting (which is actually really gross, don’t do that), and then trying to sneak more than one piece of chocolate on your s’more was how we did bonfires as kids. Also, my neighborhood group bonded over Sponge Bob constantly, so you better believe we tried to perfect the Campfire Song Song every night we had a bonfire.

 

Backyard Camping

The best part about having a lot of grass around the suburbs, was being able to sleep in a tent. As a kid, I thought that was so exciting. All day, everyone in the neighborhood would drag tents out of each of our garages and put them together before parents noticed or got home from work, so that they couldn’t object to the backyard camping trip. It took us all day to put up all the tents, that by the time it got dark, we pretty much always passed out pretty early in the night. Disclaimer: the cleanup the next day is the absolute worst way to waste a summer day.

 

Things have changed since the days of being ten years old and running around the backyard in bare feet, but summer in your hometown probably still makes you as happy as you were ten years ago. That is what I’m most looking forward to once the spring semester ends.