This summer has been one of the hottest in years!

The temperatures hovered in the 90's in the Midwest for many days before things finally cooled off. Now that the weather is humane I'm enjoying sitting out in our lanai (named in homage of course to the Golden Girls).

As the temperatures have see-sawed I've been thinking about some of our by-gone family traditions of summer. At Memorial Day we always had a family picnic at a park in a small town to the south, a tradition that started in the 1940's when my great-grandparents moved north to work in a factory during World War II, leaving my great-great-grandparents in their hometown. The park was about the halfway point between the two towns, which must have seemed much farther apart back then!

Though our family eventually gave up the traditional Memorial Day picnics, I still enjoy taking my niece and nephew to the little ice cream shop across the street and reminiscing about what the park was like when I was their age. I'm sure it bores them to tears! Hopefully the ice cream makes up for the dull stories :)

What were you favorite summer traditions when you were young? Have you kept up those traditions, or (like mine) have they fallen by the wayside?

Enjoy your 4th of July!

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