At Christmas there are presents and lights and a tree. At Halloween there are costumes and candy and pumpkins. At Valentine's day there are flowers and all together too much red and pink (don't you people know those two don't go together?). All special traditions for different seasons and holidays. Personally, I love traditions. Not all of them are wonderful (back to school shopping and the frenzy that produces in parents is never that fun), but for me they bring a connection to good times past.
I think most families have summer traditions. A lot of them, particularly here in Bend, probably revolve around camping. Vacationing as a family is probably another one. S'mores and swimming and the beach are all part of it. Unfortunately, my family doesn't really do any of these things regularly. Not anymore.
And yet, I do remember doing certain things in the summer as a kid like going to Elk or Suttle Lake to swim or playing in the sprinklers or a kiddie pool in the backyard. We would ride our bikes and play with the neighbors. Nothing big or very organized or ceremonial, just activities that we don't really do at another time of year (for obvious reasons I should think...).
A lot of these have slipped away recently. We don't go to the lake anymore. Kevin and I are too old (and too big) to fit into a kiddie pool. We don't have the kind of sprinklers conducive to running through. Now we work during the summer. We see our boyfriends and our girlfriends and we hang out with our friends.
It's not a huge loss, I suppose, seeing as the things we used to do were barely traditions at all. It's a natural progression to grow up and grow out of that stuff, right?
Maybe so. But I don't want to.
So, I've been thinking that maybe I will make up my own summer traditions and see how many of them I can keep each year.
1. Go swimming in a lake-- Suttle Lake or Elk Lake would fit in with what my family used to do, but seeing as I have no idea where I'll be living that might not be practical for very long. Rivers don't count.
2. Make s'mores over a real fire at least once-- Preferably on a beach but since that also might be a little hard depending on money and time and location we'll just say make s'mores once. (What? They're yummy.)
3. Go to the beach at least once-- Again with the location problems. Length of time doesn't matter though. A day trip will fulfill this one even if it won't leave me satisfied.
4. Bike ride. Lots-- Self-explanatory I should think...
5. Play Apples to Apples with friends-- Haven't managed to do this yet this year which is highly disappointing
6. Play at parks-- I've done a little of this, but I think I have more yet to do this summer
7. Go to at least one ceili-- This is extra dependent on location. It's kinda hard while I'm in Bend and they're all on the other sides of the mountains and if I, for some reason, end up in Michigan or Oklahoma it might now be possible at all. If I can't get to one, I should have my own.
8. At the end of the summer go to at least one play at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival-- This one I'm including, even though it won't be applicable anymore once I move out of Oregon, because it's fun and it's a great adventure.
That's all I can think up for the moment. Perhaps I'll add more another day.
Edit: Well, technically it's another day. I just have to add some of the ones Kate reminded me of any ways...
9. Hamburgers that dad grills-- Dad makes some of the best hamburgers I've ever had.
10. Have strawberry shortcake-- I like desserts a lot, okay? And strawberry shortcake just isn't right in any other season.
11. Go stargazing at least twice-- Twice because inevitably the moon will be bright or it will get cloudy or something one of those times. And if you're really lucky, you just get to look at spectacular stars twice.
