Man, to be little again...

So, I don't usually make a habit of this, but today I was CRAVING a peach milkshake from Chick-fil-a. If you haven't had one, try one...A.M.A.Z.I.N.G!!
So I grabbed one on my lunch break. As I took a sip it took me back to summers when I was young (er) (I'm still young!!). I have such fond memories of spending all summer swimming in the pool and having cook-outs on weekend evenings. My family used to make homemade ice cream for these events and MAN was it the perfect way to end a summer day. The peach milkshake today tasted just like the peach ice cream we used to have churning in our big, silver, steadily humming, ice cream maker. Man, I miss those carefree days!!! As I sat in the parking lot, enjoying my milkshake, I started to think about all the things I miss about being a kid during the summer, here is my list: (feel free to comment on some things you miss most about your childhood summers)
* I miss the hill beside the house I grew up in, my brother and I spent hours and hours pushing our scooters to the top of the hill and riding them back down. It was so fun and I can still feel the way the foot board on the scooter would wobble when we reached speeds almost too fast for a scooter to go.
* I miss lightening bugs...weird, but really, I can't think of the last time I've seen a field glowing from the hundreds of lightening bugs.
* I miss the old tire swing that hung from the tree in our pasture. My dad never did "things" small, so our tire was an old tractor tire...that thing was huge!! It was perfect for climbing inside and twisting the rope just enough to send us into a crazy, stomach churning, out of control feeling, spin.
* I also miss the creek my brother and I were fortunate enough to grow up beside. I can't think of a better way, to pass the hot summer days, turning over creek rocks and hunting for the next creek creature. I remember when we thought it was an "excellent" idea to remove the crawfish and minos from the creek and "rehome" them in our swimming pool.
* I miss the smell of fresh cut grass and the way it (cut grass) would stick to my feet when we were outside playing.
* I remember taking dad up on his "great" offer to spend hours picking up sugargum balls (those horribly, prickly, brown things that fall from trees) for the simple payment of a ride in the bucket of his "amazingly, cool" John Deere tractor. Yes, I also miss that...prickly sugargum balls and all.
* I really miss the smell of musky dimes (lol, I'm leaving this the way I spelled it..but thought it would be PC to put the proper spelling in muscadine. I want you to know I even googled the spelling, LOL..but it came up both ways. After further research I realized it came up both ways b/c there are A LOT of people out there that spell it musky dimes, so it showed up in lots of searches BUT the proper and correct way is not musky dimes, lol)...man oh man does that smell bring back memories. We had a few big bushes on the land surrounding our house and that smell ALWAYS takes me back to summers spent on E. Prince Rd.
* I miss the way our playroom (located in our basement) was always cool and made for the perfect place to play on really hot summer evenings, after we spent the day outside.
* I miss the occasional icee we would get from my grandfathers stand and I even miss the sickly sweet combination of every, single, one of the flavors I would insist on mixing together.


Obviously there are lots of things I miss about being a kid during the summer :) There's even more, but I'll spare any readers. Strangely...I'm suddenly hearing the jingle " I don't want to grow up..." as I go back to work **sigh**.