The last weekend in May signals the beginning of the hot summer months. My husband and I are anticipating tasty barbeques, bonfires with s’mores, and enjoying the company of family and friends!

During our middle school days, my friends and I always looked forward to the last few days of school. When early June rolled around, we had extremely short pencils with no erasers on top, our markers were mostly dried up, and our brown paper bag book covers were filled with graffiti. Personally, I couldn’t wait to ceremoniously trash all my old worksheet papers, broken crayons, and tacky bottles of glue from my cardboard pencil box. 

Summers in our neighborhood was so much fun! We had the advantage of our street being only a short bike ride to the middle of town so after gaining permission from our moms and finagling a dollar or some change, we met at a designated driveway and headed out.  My best girlfriends from Dartmouth Ave were Suzy and Marnie, and to this day we are still pals and have occasional dinner dates! We were lucky to have our friends the 3 Peet guys; Bob, and twins Joe and Jeff, (Peet is their last name), and also David, who lived in the house on the corner. Usually, the Quick Shop was our destination. It was a small convenience store that also carried lots of our favorite candy like Bottle Caps, Tart n Tinys, and Wacky Wafers. If we had enough money in our shoes, because that’s how we carried it, (ick!) we opted for a frozen treat of either a Push-Up, Bomb Pop, or a Strawberry Shortcake Good Humor bar. We would bike towards home, stop halfway, and eat our treats in the grass by the sidewalk. There was nothing like that happy-go-lucky feeling of hanging out with your best neighborhood friends in the hot sun and eating junky snacks the first few weeks of summer vacation!

We all got called home for dinner but we still anticipated a whole night of neighborhood fun. After figuring out who was “IT” through a couple of rounds of “Bubble Gum, Bubble Gum In a Dish”, we spent the evenings reveling in our favorite games of Hide-and-Go-Seek or Ghost in the Graveyard between houses. Hours later we all went home sweaty, dirty, and happy! 

Summers in Ohio bring excitability and anticipation, no matter what your age.  I hope my thoughts bring back simple and carefree memories to you as we look forward to a relaxing and safe summer! Enjoy!

This post is dedicated to Joe Peet, RIP. Here’s to forever Dartmouth Ave. friends.

Please take time this weekend to think about our fallen soldiers and their families who gave the ultimate sacrifice. God Bless our troops.