I often come home from lunch and see Nate and his neighborhood friend sitting on our fence like this, or somehow “looking for something to do” (a.k.a., “one step away from trouble”). They remind me of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer.
One time they were trying to fit each other into suitcases. One time they were building a precarious “ramp” out of a small cardboard box and a lot of daring. Many times there are chairs and upturned buckets around the yard, where they are building obstacle courses to fling themselves over fences and around trees in precarious ways. Many times they’re huddled around our hose, with either water balloons or squirt guns.
But it’s great to see them just being boys.
It’s one of those classic things about summer. …
What were some of your favorite things to do during the lazy days of summer when you were a kid?
Stuffing each other into suitcases! That made me laugh.
When I was a kid, I entertained myself by cleaning out the garage and going through my parents’ personal belongings. Sometimes I’d rearrange the furniture if I was feeling especially frisky.
Wander Woman´s last blog post ..Summer Garden Pasta
I love this photo for the reason you stated. I didn’t even think kids hung out like that anymore (they don’t in my neighborhood it would seem) – I thought they were just all playing video games.
I love that picture too – like Lauran says, I thought most kids just hung out playing video games these days. You don’t really see too many kids hanging out in neighborhoods being creative anymore! Remember when we were that age, we were always told to go outside and play! One of my favorite summers is still the one we hung around by your pool listening to the Eagles, rode our bikes around town, took the bus to the Mall, etc….those were the days =)
Wander Woman — “going through my parents’ personal belongings” made me laugh! : ) Sounds like you had unusual versions of “fun” in the summertime!
Lauran and Debi — They do play video games sometimes. But honestly, if there are kids outside, that ALWAYS takes precedence. As soon as he hears any kids outside, Nate is OUT THE DOOR! I remember that from when I was young, too — hearing your neighbors outside playing tag at dusk would bring everyone outside until dinner! : ) I think kids still play outside in neighborhoods that have lots of kids.
Debi — I remember that summer, too! So fun! (The smell of baby oil or suntan lotion still brings me back to those days.)
I love that picture also. I love that, for Nathan, being inside is the worst thing to do during the summer. He wants to outside interacting and PLAYING!
As a kid in the summer I can’t think of a time when we weren’t outside playing either football or baseball or tag or on the swings or ANYTHING as long as we were outside running and sweating. A fun thing we used to do was about 5-10 of us would get on our bikes and ride in formation like the Blue Angels. We’d ride and come up with formations and yell “split” and get into a new formation. Oh one I’m a little ashamed of is that we would wait for the mail lady to deliver the mail because whenever she had to bend down for something the tops of her underwear MIGHT show. And for 10 year old that was the height of eroticism! Laurie I’ll let you decide if you want to edit that out!!
WOAH THAT NATE LOOKS AMAZINGLY HANDSOME!. YOU SHOULD BLOG MORE ABOUT HIM AND TELL YOUR VEIWERS TO COMMENT ABOUT HIM!
P.S. keep up the good blog mom