Summer of my youth Part 1

As I ate supper with the kids, (Sandra was at work) I suggested that if they hurry up and eat they could go swimming in the newly filled pool in the back yard. Well the looks on there faces were priceless as they then proceeded to devour the rest of supper, and then that got me thinking...........Man was it sweet being a kid in the short Canadian summer. Then all these great memories started flooding back. Just like the other morning as I headed out to work I got that great smell that you get in a June morning, I really don't have words to describe the smell other than its the smell of fresh grass and leaves and it always reminds me of track & field at school that was held near the end of the school year. I always had great expectations of winning a few ribbons other than the pathetic brown "participation" ribbon every kid got for showing up, because my dad told me every year, "If you just come home with just that horrible brown ribbon again, I'm going to beat the crap out of you with this fan belt".( totally joking, but can you imagine if he did?). Yup T&R was a great time because it also meant that school was almost over and summer was upon us. On the last day of school our bus driver Orest Petroesky, this old Ukrainian perverted farmer who wore top gun shades and had almost no teeth, would take us to this small town drive thru in LLB called V&H and buy us a burger and a pop each, which was pretty sweet since all the other kids on other buses only got a freakn' small ice cream cone. Then after a 1.25 hr bus ride home(not joking) we got home and told Mom & Dad we passed and then we got a cool present for passing the grade.Sweet.

Then the start of summer really began. On the last bus ride home my brother Cory was probably planning in his head the fort we would build that summer. Every year there was a fort to be built and sometimes maybe even two. I not quite sure of where we got all of our building materials, but there was always lots of wood and Dads tools were always for the taking in the garage. But before any fort was to be built Mom had a huge garden that needed to be weeded about this time of year. Anybody that knew us, knew we had a stinkn' huge garden that had endless rows of peas and green & yellow beans that us kids loved eat but hated to keep up. I cant believe that after all those summers of building forts that I'm the only one in construction for a living. Oh to be a child with only petty worries.............I love being a responsible adult but there is a part of me that wishs life were that simple again. I don't have any real pictures of us and our forts but the picture above is pretty accurate even to the point of Corys spiked hair on top and free flowing mullet on the back. I've called this segment part 1 because after reflecting last night there is so much more and I don't have time today to tell them all.