I remember feeling quite proud of myself after getting my first job and spending some of my hard-earned cash on a new pair of jeans and an ice cream cone. It cost a whole two dimes for a large cone – and it was LARGE, as most everything was before the days of upping prices and downsizing product. Nothing lasts long these days either, especially appliances – but that is for another story, or I will be having to put my {TANGENT ALERT!!!} in.
When Dave (my husband) was a youngster, he remembers a nickel cone (it must have been a small cone – poor kid, missing out!). He and his dad (not missing out!) would go “all the time down the back streets and never by Diana for the ice cream” (as his dad loved to say [no idea what it means]). They both got a cone, but his dad’s cone was gone in one bite, whereas it took Dave a while to finish his.
When there was music playing in the background, my grandmother loved to pick up a child and dance around a room with them. Dave’s remembers that whenever a polka would come on the radio, his mom would pick him up and dance a polka with him in the kitchen. Music is wondrous and joy-instilling.
While we went on numerous family reunion trips over the years and loaded up the car to go to the beach on a weekly or more than weekly basis for sunning, swimming, dune climbing, castle building, and bonfires, every summer Dave’s family took a trip to Sleeping Bear Dunes. Afterward, they would stop on the west end of Platte Lake State Park. His dad would BBQ chicken and they would swim in river channel. Or they went to Glen Lake and stopped for ice cream along the way.
Life. Memories. There are always tough or painful times, words and things said and done that anger or sadden us. But there are also times of joy and fun and relaxation. There has been so much joy in these memories we’ve been walking through, and it can be healing to a soul. Choose to remember the good stuff; because it makes it so much easier to let go of the unhappy stuff.
Summer is here! (Okay, we live in Michigan, that could come and go - all summer.) Grandchildren are here! We're off to make some new memories! Have a great summer everyone!
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