30 Days of Summer - Post #24 - Childhood Summer Memories

I've never felt "old" and, most of the time, I don't even feel like I'm as old as I am or even getting old-er. (In fact, most of the time I don't feel a day over 18!) I mean, I know that I AM getting older. Like everyone else, obviously, I'm getting older than I was with every passing second! And I've always been extremely sentimental. But, this morning, something was different. I'm thinking that I'm turning into a sentimental, old fool or something.

I ran out earlier to check the fluids in my car before leaving to go pick my granddaughter up for her 13th birthday outing, and, I'm not sure WHY exactly but, when I lifted the hood on my car, I started having flashbacks to summer days spent at my grandparents house in the country at Bates City, Missouri. 🏡

When my cousin came to mow last night, I had moved my car from where it was parked in the driveway to an area that he had already mowed, and I failed to move it back to its usual place immediately, like I normally do. (Usually it is parked in the driveway or in front of the house.) This time I had moved the car over to the edge of the property and parked it under the trees that grow along the fence row and that's where it still was this morning. 🌳

My grandpa, George, used to park his car in the shade of a tree when he went to do any kind of work under the hood. Perhaps it was a combination of what I was doing (lifting the hood and checking the fluids), where I was doing it (I'm used to being inside a building or out in full sun on a tallgrass prairie...the shade of trees is not something that I experience very often at home), and the sights, sounds, smells, and other sensations that accompanied it...cicadas buzzing loudly in the trees overhead, the greasy smell of motor oil mixed with that of freshly-mown grass, the dewy dampness of the grass that tickled the bare spots on my sandal-clad feet. Somehow it all went together to produce a memory from something long ago and far away. In that moment I missed my grandpa and grandma so much that I almost cried. 👴👵😭

I tried to push the memory away, but, as I did, more memories came. I decided then and there, that when I got home, I was going to look through the old photo albums and see if I could find some summer memories.

I didn't find any summer pics of Grandpa or Grandma or their place at Bates City, but I did find a few summer photos of my growing up years in Grain Valley. 

Here is what I found...

Me on the fender of Grandpa George's old truck that, eventually, my mom and dad
had, then my Uncle Don, and, I THINK, that my Aunt Geneva or one of her children
still have to this day. What a great old truck it was, has been, and maybe still is! 😊

The place where I grew up on Old 40 Highway (AA) in Grain Valley, Missouri...the
house that my dad built with his own two hands and the shop where he worked
hard, made a living, and provided for his family. By the world's standards, my parents
didn't have a lot, but what they did have was theirs and I was proud of them.

My dad and I in the corner of that property where the flower garden was.

My mom and I in the front yard.

Me on my 13th birthday. The gift on top of that pile? From my husband's mom
and dad! (My husband now. He wasn't my husband THEN! 😆 But we have
known each other since I was 5-years-old and our dads were best friends.) 💗

These are a few of my childhood summer memories. What summer childhood memories do you hold dear?

Until next time...
~Rebecca

Recent and related posts that you might enjoy reading...

30 Days of Summer - Post #23 - Summer Birthdays

Happy Homemaker Monday - August 13, 2018

30 Days of Summer - Post # 22 - My Summer Friend