“Dinner is served!”, Mom proclaimed as she placed a meal of
chicken casserole, sweet potatoes and her version of salad on the table. We all gathered around and I started the
conversation off. “Well, before we get
into how everyone’s day was, I have some things I’d like to ask,” I began. “I need to write my annual piece on how my
summer was but instead of MY memories, I want YOUR memories.”
“Dad,” I continued, “Why don’t you start? What is one word that you would use to
describe your summer?” My dad pondered
for a second, at first a little blankly and then with finger pointing to the
air he said, “MAAHH-velous”. Jake rolled
his eyes and said, “Mine was Supercallifragilistic!”. I surveyed the rest, my Mom said, “Short!” to
which Ron exclaimed, “I was going to say LONG – I had the kids all day every
day!” and Emma finished us with, “Funtasticalious!”
“Ok everyone, what about your favorite memories from Summer 2013?”
I asked a new question. The answers
began pouring in. “Going to Florida with
Ron. We could golf every day,” Dad said. Ron answered, “How many times did we actually
golf, though?” Dad laughingly replied,
“I said we COULD golf everyday”. My Dad
was really thinking about this and kept going, “We had such a nice time on that
trip, good food, good project work, it was cool every day.” I said, “I notice you didn’t say good
company.” To which we all laughed.
My
Mom said her favorite memory was the Cedar Point trip she and my Dad took with
the Grandkids and my sister. Emma said
her favorite memory was watching her brother play baseball, and of course
riding her bike. Ron said our Pool Party
with all our friends was his best memory and Jake summed it all up with
“getting fro-yo at Yo Bubbs!”.
By this point, the group was ready for a new question and
much to my surprise, ready to participate.
So I asked, “What are you going to miss the most about summer?” My Mom promptly replied, “Seeing my Grandkids
and my Kids, including my kids in law, Ron.”
Emma said she’d miss the long days and sunshine, to which my Dad
replied, “Yes that and the heat!” Ron
said he was going to miss shirking his responsibilities and Jake said he would
miss swimming the most.
I didn’t share my thoughts and feelings as the interviewer
but I will in my final report. I started
the summer with one goal, to enjoy every moment. I feel like the summer of 2013 brought me the
most simple joy that I’ve had in a summer in quite some time. I slowed down, worked less, paid more attention. I listened to my kids more and tried to reach
out to friends as much as I could. I
went for day trips to visit people we’d been promising to come see for years
and made each day count. The weather was
beautiful and each day I was reminded that these are my good old days.
All in all, I think the summer of 2013 was about spending
time with family and friends and when we all summed it up over a meal, it felt
right, if not a little bittersweet to say goodbye to it for a few cold
months. Now, to make the most of autumn…
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