I remember……(and that’s saying a lot sometime), how it was to be a kid on Outer Drive South in the summertime……It was outstanding……but, I’m sure, not by today’s kid rating.   We played….I mean really played.  We played outdoors…..in the yard, under the magnificent shade of maple trees. We day dreamed with the clouds..as they displayed magical formations, that, in turn, gave us magical ideas. We played in sandboxes, using spatulas, sifters, rocks, wood, and whenever, Tonka.  We had peanut butter sandwiches, a banana, and milk for lunch before heading for the summer afternoon…..or the ever favorite, grilled cheese and an apple..

There was always the sprinkler to keep us cool, and then we would all lay in the grass, looking for a 4 leaf clover, as the sun cooked the landscape. We played hopscotch, using rocks for chalk, and when it got to be close to suppertime, we’d sit on the front step and wait for our daddy to come home

We didn’t know about air conditioning…..well, we did, but it was called….a fan.  Our grandparents had ‘summer kitchens’ to keep the house cool, and we had summer porches, screened in rooms where we slept when going for a visit.

There was always the ice cream man and we could set our watches by him…..money was not in abundance, so it was truly a treat when we got change from the house to get something.

There was a field in the back of our house, even tho we lived in town.  One year it was corn, and the next beans, then maybe it was weeds for a year or two…..It was our ‘extended’ playground….close to home for safety and yet a place to run races, and hide between the stalks.

There were girls and boys, but not girlfriends and boyfriends…..C’mon, this was in the 50’s when kids actually acted like kids.  TV’s were what the ‘rich people’ had…..and Mickey Mouse was just beginning his club of followers.

When the sun went down, it was time for ‘kick the can’….only to be played at night…..and did we play. We had at least 3 houses each way, plus the ‘field’.  The ‘gas thing’ out in the front yard next door was ‘home’ and 10 kids disappeared and reappeared, running in for ‘free’, as the lightning bugs covered the fields of hazy central Indiana. 

When mother range the bell, it was the close of the day……we would scamper from wherever and whatever we were doing…..cause the bell always ment ‘come and come NOW’.

Oh, summer days are still beautious, and the lightning bugs still hover the cornfields, but the memories of being a kid in the 50’s, can hardly be duplicated…..It was so, so very special.