Happy Summer Memories

Summer 1968.

My cousin, Judy Brutka, in the back, with Marlene, Leona and myself in our backyard.

I loved this backyard on Monmouth Avenue.

It was huge! My Dad faithfully mowed it once a week, front and back, and my Mom had a wonderful vegetable garden, with gorgeous flowers along both sides of the back fence, and along the fence in the front yard. My Mom always loved to garden; it was one of her relaxing hobbies. She was always out in it, in between other chores.

I remember she would hang out laundry on the long back line each morning by 10 am, and then my sisters and I would play all day in the back yard. The front was off limits. I would ride my tricycle down the front street though; taking it to the very top of the hill, and lifting my feet off while I rolled down the middle of the road! I loved doing that. Sometimes Leona and I would tie a long skipping rope to the front picket fence, and skip. We would also play in the mud puddles if there were any, and pretend that the chicory plants were mini trees. In the back we would wash dolly clothes by the hour. When I was around 10 or 11 we got a plastic pool and spent hours in it. We also had a camping spot near the garage where our dolls camped in a wooden trailer my Dad made from a peach box, which attached to the back of my tricycle.

We would make mud pies and let them dry in the hot sun on old TV trays, and we'd make "salads" out of grass and dandelion flowers. One of our highlights was when my Dad made us a sand box. On really hot days we'd turn on the sprinkler and run back and forth through it, or we'd read in the cool basement.

This picture brings back all those memories. I would help my Mom hang out the laundry and I'd take it in for her in the boiling afternoon sun around 4:30 when she was making supper.

I wish Judy had a computer so she could see this!