Welcome, Summer Solstice!

Dear Kids, Teachers, and All Readers,

Happy Summer! The season when children and educators get giddy, and parents wonder what to do with the kids for three months.

However you plan to spend this summer, I hope it’s one of your best.

I get nostalgic this time of year as I reflect back on wonderful childhood summers.

My twin sister and I spent nearly every day with our cousin, who is two years older than us. She lived one block away, so by mid-morning, we met either at her house or ours, ready for another day of fun. As we were on the way out the front door, my grandmother would shout, “Just be back by dinnertime.” Those were the days when kids felt safe to explore without adults hovering, planning their time, or driving them everywhere.

Off the three of us went, usually walking about a mile to Balboa Park, the jewel of our city. Back then, the San Diego Zoo, part of the park, was free for kids, so that’s where we often started. My cousin used to enjoy the Reptile House. Not I, but we would go with her, anyway, because she always made it fun. She shared interesting things about the snakes or whatever animals we encountered. We would stop and say hello to the elephants, giraffes, and lions, ending up at the Children’s Zoo–a zoo within the zoo–and watch the little white rodents in the Mouse House, a large loaf of bread where they ate their fill. Then, we’d go to the petting paddock and rub down the goats and donkeys and feed them carrot and celery sticks stuffed into ice cream cones (minus the ice cream). But watch out! Those goats loved to nibble on clothing.

Sometimes if we had money from our allowances, we would buy hamburgers, French fries, and cokes at the zoo. While eating our lunch, we would listen to the park’s enormous bell tower chime all four quarters of the hour but keep an eye out for swooping seagulls. They were master food thieves, stealing goodies right out of our hands! Good-bye lunch.

Once our cousin learned to drive, we would pile into her family’s car with our own homemade picnic lunches and head for the beach. Our favorite was La Jolla Shores. We took rafts and rode the waves into shore, built sandcastles surrounded by moats, which we filled with seaweed “dragons,” slathered ourselves with baby oil, and sunbathed for golden tans. (No one knew about skin cancer yet.) Often, we waded out into the ocean, waist high, and dove into towering waves before they crashed. We were fearless. Sharks? What sharks? On the way home, we always stopped at the drugstore for ice cream cones. Chocolate with fudge swirls for me, always. My sister liked vanilla or strawberry while our cousin favored pistachio or rocky road.

Other days, we would stick closer to home and take our lunch and a blanket to “The Green,” a small park three blocks south of my house, for a picnic. I would pack either a peanut butter and grape- jelly sandwich or a cheese sandwich, a small bag of Fritos, a brownie from the morning bakery truck, and plums or peaches, but mostly peaches. I remember eating way too many for a kid some days–maybe four!–because my mom would buy them by the lug. I still recall those comforting peach scents perfuming the back porch, smelling of summer.

On days when it was too hot, we would hang out at my cousin’s house. She would make us tuna sandwiches, full of chopped onions, and serve ice-cold lemonade. Afterwards. we would have popcorn while plunked down in front of her big-box television set, hoping to catch an afternoon monster movie. We were seldom disappointed. But if we were, there was always Monopoly or Clue! And speaking of “clue” . . .

Get a clue, kids and all readers. I hope you get out and have a blast under the summer sun. May you create some fabulous memories to sustain yourselves in the years ahead. Eat lots of peaches, but not too many. And don’t forget to use sunscreen.