Summer

It is finally summer, at least for a few days. I am looking forward to sun and warmth. But I got to thinking about summers of my life and how they have changed over the years.

When I was 6 years, probably the first specific summer I can remember, we took the family truckster to Iowa to visit my grandparents. The trip took us through many states and I really only remember the trip through stories and pictures for the most part but I do remember being with my cousin Caroline in Iowa. We were immediate best friends and inseperable. I remember a thunderstorm like no other storm I have ever experienced since hit and we were so scared we hit under my grandma's bed for a long time, of course talking and giggling. I also remember my sister, who would have been 16 at the time, trying on my Aunt Beth's wedding dress and thinking how beautiful she was.

When I was 10 we moved to a little house on Day Island. That event really helped to shape the person I became. I had to move away from by best friend Pam Lange. She was two years older than me and the age difference was separating us already since she was going to start Junior High and I was still a grade schooler. As a result of this move I became "Queen of the beach". Every summer Darby, my dog, and I would walk the beach and swim every day. If you know anything about the Puget Sound waters, especially at the Narrows, you know how cold it is. For some reason, it didn't bother me and I would spend all day out there. The nights were special with the smells of the beach and the warm air and I would move onto the porch to sleep all summer long just to take in the air all night. This was particularly interesting when the hobos from the railroad would stop by and wake me up asking me for something to eat. They knew my mom would always make sandwiches for them and usually my dad would slip them some money.

My dog was the biggest part of my life on Day Island. He was a beach dog. When the tide was out he was on the beach all day flipping over rocks and biting crabs and chasing flat fish in the shallow water. If it was hot, he would just start swimming. He didn't need to have a ball or stick thrown for him because he just loved to swim. He was jet black and boaters often mistook him for a seal. On the 4th of July the entire population got together and set of fireworks. It was safe, the water was right there. But Darby would attack the colorful cones as they were going off and run up and down the street with the cone firing fireworks out the side of his mouth. It was a sight! When I turned 18 and was ready to go off to college Darby died. I was so sad but I believe Darby always set his own terms and this was just the last one.

As a teenager, sunning and tanning was the goal. By then we lived in the second house on Day Island and it had a roof that sloped down into a "v", reverse of a normal roof, and it had walls up the sides that protected the roof from wind and cold. As a result, Pam, Wendy, Susie, Cindy and I would start laying out on the roof in March and would keep it up into November as long as the sun was shining. This has followed me into adulthood as this same group of now women still get together once a summer for a weekend at the beach on Anderson Island.

In college, summer was always about being home for three months. A summer job at the nursing home, seeing friends and family and counting the days until I could go back to WSU. That's why I understand my boys when they are home. It is good to be home but only for awhile because you start to develop your own life, your own way of doing things and depending on yourself and all of a sudden you are back where parents want to keep you that dependent child they have loved caring for their whole lives. Life works it out though.

The summer months were also full of big events in my life. My sister got married August 19th in a wedding I thought was so beautiful. Then my own wedding was August 23rd, perfect in my eyes. I was pregnant in the summer of 1982 in Conconully and I enjoyed every minute of it. On the flip side, my mom passed away on July 23rd and our very special dog, Murphy, died at almost 16yrs of age on July 26th.

Finally, with two little boys summers were about camping, fishing and giving them the new experiences that would help shape them for years to come. Our favorite camping spot was Banks Lake where we would camp with John and Mary Alden. Every few years there would be a big Talcott family reunion at Blue Lake in Oregon where we would get reacquainted with cousins and aunts and uncles. And every summer the boys would spend one week with Grandma and Grandpa Wicks in Omak while my husband and I went to Reno by ourselves. That was always a special week for the boys and now that grandma and grandpa are gone I am so grateful that they have those memories.

Once sports hit our world, summer centered around Little League Allstars, trips for various tournaments etc. We usually managed to fit a family vacation in though. Most memorable was our trip to Moab, Utah and a week of exploring Arches National Park. It was the most grueling physical challenge of my life and I didn't take to it very well. Nevertheless, it lives in my memory as a great time. Huntington Beach, San Francisco, Tijuana, and if nothing else, we would take the boys with us to Reno. Good times!

Which brings me to this summer. A special family vacation to Hawaii. Are my expectations too high for this one? Are the boys really going to want to be with us for 8 days? Will we be able to preserve some of that special family vacation feeling we had when they were young? I think so. They have become the best of human beings. So interesting, adventurous yet grounded. I think my expectations will be exceeded and I can't wait.

Enjoy the summers of your life.