“After a visit to the beach, it’s hard to believe that we live in a material world.”
The weather says heat is on its way, 80’s for the next few days. I guess the dog days of August have made it just under the wire. Schools around here start next week. The paper listed their start days this morning. That always meant the end of summer for me, but I never really minded. My favorite time of year was coming.
During summers, when I was growing up, meals were haphazard. We were always coming and going, even to being outside after the streetlights went on. Dinners were simple, usually hot dogs or hamburgers, corn on the cob, popsicles and every now and then my mother’s famous peppers and eggs. We were never a green salad family. My mother made potato salad. My father loved homegrown tomatoes, and he used to cut one up, put the slices on a plate, add a spoonful of mayonnaise for dipping and have it as a side dish at dinner. We kids ate as quickly as we could so we could get back outside. Sunday family dinners were put off until cooler weather.
We spent countless weekends at the beach. The picnic basket was always filled with sandwiches, fruit and cookies. The tartan jug held bug juice. My mother seldom ventured off the blanket. She’d sit and watch my sisters. My brother and I roamed. My father swam in the cold water while my brother and I waited until low tide so we could swim in the warmer, tide pools. I remember walking on the rippled sand to get to the deep pool. The houses across from the beach were huge, and I always wished I could live in one of them and wake up every day to hear the gulls and see the water. My mother used to get annoyed if we tracked sand on the blanket. I remember a wet bathing suit, a towel around my shoulders, my butt on the blanket and my legs and feet in the sand. The last bites of food always tasted gritty.
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keepthecoffeecoming.blog 
August 30, 2010 at 12:09 pm
Outside after the street lights were on? My goodness, Kat, your parents were very lenient. We had to be in bed by 7:30. It was still light outside. We could hear other kids out there playing in the street. It was terrible. 🙂
My mother’s favorite beach was Wingaersheek. The water was warm but you had to walk a long way to get any depth to it. The thing I remember about going to the beach was the big green metal thermos jug with the dent in the cover. It usually held Kool-aid for the backyard parties but on beach day it dispensed real lemonade.
Oh, and I remember sand in my bathing suit and being yelled at for having sand on my feet when I got to the car.
August 31, 2010 at 9:27 am
Caryn,
It was summer and the rules seemed to stretch way beyond their usual limits. 7:30 seems too, too early. How old were you?
How funny, we often went to Wingaersheek too though it was a ride for us all the way up Route 128. My dad had a solution for the sand. He’d bring a bucket and fill it with water and have it ready at the car. We’d all have to clean our feet and put on sandals before we could get in the car. Towels were on the seats to keep us from leaving sand.
August 31, 2010 at 9:34 am
I guess I was under 10 years old but old enough to know that it was sooo wroooong to have to be in bed at 7:30 in the summertime.
My dad did the bucket of water thing too but somehow I always managed to find some sand between the bucket and the car.
August 30, 2010 at 12:35 pm
During summer it was a bit diffucult to stay out until it got dark here 🙂 🙂 Even my mother wanted me inside before 11pm 🙂 🙂 But it happened quite often at late spring and early autumn. In wintertime we couldn´t but stay outside long after it got dark, since school didn´t end until 4pm and then the sun was on its way down 🙂 🙂
We don´t have any notieceble tide here, so it was the cold water or no water at all.Since we doesn´t have that many beaches with sand around Gothenburg we never had gritty food :-)but we usually scraped our toes on the cliffs instead 🙂
Cold and sunny here today. There´s a fire in the stove so it won´t get to humid inside tonight. The ventilation never really works here until cold autumn starts and I have a fire in the stove every day.
Have a great day now!
Christer.
August 31, 2010 at 9:29 am
Christer,
The summer was fun time for us when we’d play games under the street lights. Winter here also made afternoon playing time short. We were in by 4 as well.
The beaches here are all sandy and beautiful. The ones we went to as kids were the same.
We’re in the middle of a heat spell with temps in the mid 80’s.
August 30, 2010 at 4:53 pm
We never lived close to a beach so it was thrilling to drive to one in the summertime. Just thinking the day ahead of the long drive got us kids giddy with delight. And it was a beach where my parents could book us into whether a duplex where we walked to the beach; the Mary Ann Inn in Rehobeth Beach, Delaware that had a view of the ocean; or the best one which was a cottage on the ocean at Kitty Hawk, NC. That was the best but the longest drive for us who lived inland. But I loved all those vacations and I didn’t care if the food tasted gritty, I was always hungry.
August 31, 2010 at 9:30 am
Z&Me,
I guess we were spoiled having beaches so close. We’d go on the weekends and spend the whole day there. What’s funny is we spent less time at the beach when we moved down here to the Cape.
The beach now is so crowded I don’t go much. In the fall is the best time for beaches.