Suddenly Summer...Recollections of Summers Past...

      At last it is Memorial Day, and the weather is hot and humid in Ohio.  As I have worked on cleaning up my garden and the flower beds my memories drift back to all the smells and sounds of summer.  I'm remembering Great Grandma Annie because of her birthday which usually fell on Decoration Day.  Setting off small fire crackers in her front yard, and playing with sparklers as the sun set were some of the activities of the day.  But the day usually began with my family of grandparents, cousins and assorted friends all walking uptown from Great Grandma's house to attend the town parade.  It was a very small town, and the parade was not as spectacular as some I have attended, but when you're a kid, every parade is a big deal.  Especially one that you can walk to from a grandma's house.  And sometimes that meant that we could all have a lemonade from the local stand in town.  Ice cream came later!  Of course there was wonderful food at the picnic meal.  There were more pies than you could shake a stick at, and sliced ham and fried chicken.  The ham came from Grandma Annie's cold storage in her root cellar.  Someone else in the family raised hogs and saw to it that she had a few after they were prepared.  She always had some chickens for the eggs, but that much fried chicken required purchasing some poultry.  All the vegetable dishes were provided by everyone in the family who had a garden.  It was always a contest to see who made the best pie each year.  And the ice cream had to be homemade.  Everybody had to take a turn or two the help crank the magical ingrediants into glorious ice cream.  We thought it was such a big deal to throw in either strawberries or peaches.  Yes, it would have been much easier to just run down the the local store and buy ice cream for everyone, but it wouldn't have been nearly as much fun.  What I hadn't realized at the time was that we weren't just making ice cream, we were making great memories as well.  Part of the rituals of the visit that was a personal favorite of mine was when we girls got to sit with some of my grandmother's sisters and go through Great Grandma's jewelry boxes.  They recounted the stories of how each special piece of jewelry was acquired and what it meant to Annie.  I was always fascinated with two pieces in Annie's jewel box.  One was a large amethyst broach stick pin and the other was a hand-painted pin of delicate bluebells.  When I asked if I could have them when I grew up, I was told yes, when I was old enough.  That promise was good enough for me.  Long after I had forgotten about the pins, eventually they came to me.  For many years they held a special place in my heart.  Then the time came that I passed along the hand-painted pin to my cousin's daughter when she was engaged to marry.  I wrote the story down on a card for her to preserve the tradition for her.  That pin was one of a set of buttons that had been made into pins for my grandmother and her sisters.  The buttons had come from Scotland with Grandma Annie when she came to the United States in her teens. The "girls" as my grandmother's sisters were known as, never missed a wedding in the famly.  Now everyone was long gone, but I assured my cousin's daughter that having the pin was like having them there.  They would have loved to attend her wedding.  Everyone who read the card about the pin cried.  I hadn't meant to do that to everyone.  But I know the pin will be passed along with love in the family. 
     So many memories!  I thought everyone had those kind of memories, but that just isn't the case.  With all the electronic distractions of the day, cell phones, e-readers, laptop computers, etc., I hope everyone is remembering why we celebrate Memorial Day.  Those Norman Rockwell memories of mine may be a thing of the past, but what they represent is the fact that we were happy as a family, we celebrated it with gusto in a very American way, and we appreciated the fact that we had that very American kind of freedom to do so.  I'm hoping that those who read this blog make the time to celebrate and create quality memories with your families.  Happy Memorial Day everyone! And God bless America!