That’s The $100 Question (seriously, answer & maybe win $100)
If you are joining us for the first time, or if you are an old friend stopping by on your way through the interwebs, welcome to Friday! Friday in the middle of a sticky, sweltering, summer day that is classic St. Louis.
We may have to keep the old folks and pets indoors today, but remember those summers when temperature was never an issue? Do you remember when you thought plastic-sheathed, frozen ice pops were all you needed to keep cool and fueled for the day? All you cared about was the fact you didn’t have to go to school, and it never mattered if your jelly shoes matched your tank top. It was all about fun, and possibly Barbies.
I may not be a credentialed reporter but evidently I asked a pretty good question once, because today we are hosting the BlogHer $100 Question here on Girls Guide. And I am asking you, dear readers, what is the one thing you miss most about summers when you were a kid?
I think the thing I miss the most was that hour of twilight (zomg, I almost capitalized that word as in the book…), just after dinner and before you had to go inside for the night. That sweet spot on the clock when the sounds of cicadas begin humming in the background and the flickers of lightning bugs begin dotting the grass. My best friend, Missy, and I would get a thrill out of catching lightning bugs- filling our mason jars with a bed of grass and as many glowing bugs as we could until we had so many held captive that they would fly out when you opened the lid.
Then we would rip those little suckers’ butts off and use the glowing part as war paint- it was so much fun. Fun until our parents caught us doing it and explained not only how gross bug were, but how gross it was that we were smearing mutilated bug parts on our faces, arms, and legs. Talk about innocence and the desire to eat desert lost.
So what do you miss? Leave your answer in the comments and you will be qualified to win 100 smackaroos from BlogHer! (Here are the official rules for folks that are into that sort of thing)
Melody is the Founder and Managing Editor. She is a freelance writer & an interactive media strategist by day. She writes for Girls Guide, STLFamilyLife.com, and on her personal blog, Mrs SmartyPants.com by night. You can email her at melody [at] girlsguidetothegalaxy [dot] com, and you can follow her on Twitter- @cosmosgirl.
I miss summers spent in LA with my grandparents. They were filled with fishing and shrimping with my pawpaw, trips to Toledo Bend, weeks at Camp Wi-Ta-Wentin and endless fun with my cousin who is just six months younger than I am.
Those memories are my favorite and I’d give almost anything to go back and do it all again.
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The things I miss most about my childhood summers is spending endless hours at the pool. More specifically, I miss spending time splashing around and playing “Goofy” with my cousins in my grandma’s pool. As I’m thinking back to those summers, I am immediately reminded of bronzed skin, stringy wet hair, the difficulties of trying to beat my older cousins in the games we played, and the deliciousness of the popsicles my grandma would bring to us when we would take (very short) breaks from the water. I can hear the giggles, the arguments, and the splashing water like it was yesterday. Although I am happy where I am in my life, I can’t help but miss those pool-filled summers when all we had to worry about was when we got to go swimming next.
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I miss running through the sprinkler! (But I don’t miss all of the little pieces of wet grass I had to pick off of myself afterwards…)
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OH, I miss staying out all day with my friends, riding my bike EVERYWHERE, and only coming home when the street lights came on. I loved summer as a kid in the 80s.
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I miss being able to go outside completely barefoot for hours at a time with no cares in the world. I would bike ride barefoot, run after the ice cream man barefoot, even go play in the near by creek barefoot! It doesn’t sound like the best idea any more, but there is nothing better than the feeling of grass between your feet for hours on end.
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no question here: i miss spending all weekend, practically every weekend, at my grandparents’ lake house with our entire family. it wasn’t fancy, but we were together and having a great time playing in the sun & the water.
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Spending absolutely every day, all day at the pool with my girl friends. Man, I had a great tan.
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I’m not a girl so I don’t know if I can answer that question, but if I could I would say Jack Buck’s voice. It didn’t mater if you were a baseball fan or not, there was something awesomely, distinctively “St. Louis summertime” about hearing that voice coming from every radio at every backyard barbeque in the city.
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I was actually lamenting the loss of the fireflies when you posted the question. But then you took my answer, well, except I wasn’t mass-murdering them. Now I know why they’re all gone now. Great.
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That moment when school let out for the summer and I was free. It was such an amazing feeling.
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My version of daytime TV- Saved by the Bell, Dawson’s Creek, Little House on the Prairie, Ghostwriter, Rosie O Donnell Show, Zoom, Show Me St. Louis…
roaming the streets of South County with my friends, going to their pools and my pool, walking up to McDonald’s or Steak n Shake for lunch….
weeklong trips to Tabelrock Lake…
buying my new backpark and school supplies….
waiting for the ‘Buzzbook’ to come in the mail to find out which class we were in for the next year in school….
having time to get a tan…
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Wow there are a few things : ) The girl that lived next door, was good friends with me and my sister and we hung out all the time, puddle walking after rain and doing crafts, even having a backyard circus one year. I miss trips with the parents and/or grandparents. sometimes spending wkends in NH or this one time, my mom, sister and i took a girls road trip for a wk through nine states! So much carefree time lol where as now *heh* its trying to keep up with day to day life.
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Simply being carefree. I miss having basically no worries.
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I miss the summers with my grandparents. They lived on a farm and I remember riding on the tractor with my grandpa, while he was bailing the hay. And having watermelon with them outside while the sun went done. Also I miss going to the river and swimming when the weather got hot.
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What I miss most is TIME…..the feeling that your day/week/month is forever long…now as an adult time flies in the blink of an eye. As a kid I always used to say “when is september going to get here its taking forever” and now September is right around the corner and i feel like it will be here tomarrow( thats how fast time flies for me) as i am sure it does for all the other busy people out there.
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I miss going to camp-swimming all day, camp food, and silly camp songs.
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What I miss most about the summers is going camping , making smores, sitting by the fire talking and laughing, the food cooked on the fire.Corn cooked in the husks in the foil with butter on the fire. Playing teh game clue at the campground
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I miss going to the beach all day, my parents buying fresh seafood, then all of my family would have a great meal together and listen to my grandparents tell childhood stories!
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If I wasn’t waterskiing, swimming, or fishing, I was on the trails having a blast with my friends. I only came back to the camp site to eat and sleep. We went every weekend from Memorial Day to Labor Day I’m told I was 3 days old the first time (and slept in the drawer or the tub of the camper) till I was about 14 years old (and slept in a bed or tent by then). How I miss Raccoon Lake, even my friends that went with me still talk about the fun we had back then.
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I miss not having a care in the world. Going swimming and playing with my sister, spending time at our aunt’s house in the country, going to amusement and water parks with our dad, having more family alive back then, etc. etc. Ah, if only I could do it all over again!!!
(And STL Mommy sent me, BTW!) =)
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By far, my favorite memory of summer is driving to softball games/tournaments with my Dad. My Dad played baseball in college and loved nothing more than coaching me and sharing his love for the game with me. I didn’t quite realize it at the time, but riding in his non-air conditioned car, talking baseball/softball with him made me feel kind of invincible. Life was totally carefree and I was spending it almost every day with my hero. Playing the games with my friends weren’t that bad, either!
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What I miss most about my childhood summers is relaxing. Spending time with my friends and family instead of spending all day at work. I miss going to the beach with my aunts, and finding hermit crabs and seashells… building sand castles and playing marco/polo in the water. I also miss playing with my friend down the street, we used to make handmade “friendship bracelets” and we would sell them to people around our neighborhood. We never did the stereotypical lemonade stand, we just did the bracelets and other jewelery. Also, growing up as a kid my family would create a circus in our backyard with many different events all happening, we would give out tickets, have specialties, and sell tickets to come in. Everyone in the village and neighborhood all knew about it and would attend every year and ask us to do it more often than once a summer. I guess that pretty much covers it, i miss all of the fun and simple happiness that we would get as kids…
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Going back out to play for atleast an hour after dinner, art classes, CAMP, riding my bike all day/everyday, walking to Dairy Queen, subdivision garage sales, and weekends at our lake house in Michigan.
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I miss being able to leave in the morning, and spending the whole day with my friends riding bikes, swimming, playing games, climbing trees, and not having to worry about anything.
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