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Tuesday, August 13, 2013

SOL2013 Traveling Through Time

It seems to happen every summer around this time.  I realize that summer is almost over and I have yet to fulfill my summer "travel" dreams (no matter how unrealistic they are!)  I was starting to feel that end-of-the-summer-pang the other day, when I realized that I really have "traveled" quite a bit this summer  - through time!  



In a faded photo, I saw a glimpse of my dad's summer-vacations on the farm. There was never traveling, except for a day trip to the Orange County Fair!  Yet, I'm confident these boys felt the same pangs I feel as the middle of August rolled around and school loomed on the horizon!

Another summer, after the family farm was sold, I saw images of the mansions in Newport with my perfectly coifed Aunts and Grandmother.  I admired their pre-permanent-press-yet-wrinkleless shirtwaist dresses.  I wondered if they reminisced about the "lazy, hazy days of summer" harvesting, canning, cooking and preserving, maybe just a little, as the middle of August rolled around and fall loomed on the horizon!

I smiled as I remembered, vaguely, the tiny pool our mobile home park.  Our "trailer" was tiny and stifling hot; thus, we spent every afternoon jumping in and climbing out of that pool!  I remembered the sun in your eyes picture-taking and wondered how I swam in that vest and cap?  Oh my!  I remember the pangs as August rolled to a close and days at the pool were counted in single digits!

And, before the personal-pity-party-of-not-exploring-Europe-again-this-summer had a chance to become tangible, I was smiling about finding photos, remembering family and traveling through time to summers long ago!  It wasn't long before the middle-of-August-pangs were mixed with gratitude for the bright images of this busy summer, my happy family and the new memories we are enjoying, right here and now! 

7 comments:

Linda B said...

Traveling through time is a wonderful thing, too, as you've just shown, Anita. Love seeing those pics, & I suspect the women didn't look very nostalgically at summer because they worked so hard! The county fair was a big trip for me, too as I grew up-the only times I could have sno-cones & cotton candy! Thanks much for sharing your own summer travel!

elsie said...

Old photos can certainly take us back in time. Before you know it, those happy times of today will be treasured memories.

Terje said...

It's better to smile while thinking what is and was than to cry over what isn't or wasn't. The summers I have are completely opposite to the ones my grandparents had. Summer for them was mostly work. I am sad for the summer to end but I have collected many sweet memories that will bring a smile to my face whenever I think back.

Stacey said...

What beautiful pictures, Anita. Thanks for sharing this time travel with us. (Particularly liked the one from Newport. That's the first place my husband and I ever traveled to together.)

Kay said...

Thanks for sharing your pictures and memories. Enjoy those last days of summer before they slip away!

Leigh Anne Eck said...

What a neat post. I collect antiques and also quilted before I started teaching. I found a treasure at a yard sale one summer...a box full of fabric scraps. I made a quilt with them and the entire time I was working on it, I thought about what the fabric was used for. These pictures remind me of that and those stories I created in my mind.

writekimwrite said...

It was great the way you brought us with you. Such vivid memories of summers past and appreciation for the summer you have had.