I grew up in the summers of the sixties and early seventies in a home where there wasn’t air conditioning and the house was unbearably hot. So we would go outside under our patio and play jacks and read books all day. It was a time of iced lemonade or iced tea.
But my mother had a southern influence in all that she did including the sweetest of ice tea and the best country cooking. She was someone who started loving to cook when she was as young as ten years old. So we truly grew up completely under the persuasion of all things southern.
The summers left us with golden tans and memories of the hottest “dog days” of summer and very large glasses of lemonade.
I remember escaping into far away places as I read novel after novel and adventure after adventure. It was a time of being a child and letting go of the many things that had happened to me before I was adopted.
My mother knew how to sprinkle the amazing magic of nurturing across everything she did. It was exactly what my sister and I needed for the few summers that we had left. She gave us that gift of being a child. No cares, or worries and no horrible pictures of what addiction and alcohol does to lives. She gave us a glimpse of innocence those few summers and unconditional love was everywhere.
The time just slides by and here we are in the 21st century and the missing of our youth is almost daily. But oh what a treasured memory of tall glasses of iced cold drinks and unlimited free time.
