When I think of summertime play, I think of running through sprinklers or water fights with the hose. Water figured prominently in summertime, whether we had a pool or not.
And we always had those Black Cat firecrackers that we used to...well, I'm not sure the statute of limitations has run on that. And sparklers - they were magical. We lit them and held them, wondering at the magic of light, and as we got older, wrote words or made shapes in the dark with them.
That was when the prospect of summer stretched out before us, limitless like the Gulf of Mexico when we went to Panama City Beach for the day.
My birthday each summer was bittersweet: a day just for me but the knowledge that shopping for school clothes and school itself was only 3 weeks away (that was when we started after Labor Day).
Now summer means better traffic.
And fresh vegetables at the weekly neighborhood market or stands on the side of the road: corn and beans and, most importantly, tomatoes. And fruit: apples, peaches, berries and melons.
Vacation is a week, or two if I'm lucky, and I have that same sense of limitless time as I did in childhood, even if it's just for a while.
And sprinklers and sparklers are still magic.
The pic is really fun.
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