Make the Summer Hot

As you sit there reading this, summertime fun will be influencing your every turn. Like the bright summer sun, NASCAR is about halfway through their season with pristine hotrods burning up the tracks. Spring training is over, and baseball is hitting homeruns across the country as they make a run towards October. Not to be left out, football, both college and professional, will be calling their teams into training camp soon to be ready for the fall season. They know, regardless of the bowl game they play, it all begins during summer. So, grab some lotion along with your BBQ sauce and let’s get this 2021 Summer going.

Summertime Fun

When I was growing up, summer was for one purpose and one purpose only, to simply have fun. We had rhymes to commemorate our not being in school and on summer break. The Beach Boys made a whole career on singing songs about summer living. Even the hit Broadway play and later a hit movie, Grease, had the hit song, Summer Lovin’. If you were to sum up summer in one word, it would be, FUN with a capital “F.”

Almost every childhood memory of mine took place during summer. Pool parties, family reunions, seeing my cousins and playing in the neighborhood till dark when Mom called us home. During the summer we played baseball, football, kickball and went off into the woods (I grew up in Kentucky). I remember one family reunion where we had a family softball game. I don’t remember who won or what the score was, but we had a blast. It was here I held my first snake and set my love for the creepy crawlers.

All the cool holidays (besides Christmas) take place in the summer, Memorial Day, Independence Day and Labor Day. You can always count on a crowd of people getting together and the best grilled hambrgers being eaten. Boats are being launched, fireworks are exploding and the food, well it’s simply the best. Who doesn’t love a grilled hotdog with all the works? What about having a watermelon eating contest or even crowning a watermelon seed spitting champion? You can’t do any of this at Christmas.

Summertime Feast

Although Thanksgiving and Christmas seem to corner the market on having feasts, don’t count out the feasts of summer. Rather than turkeys and hams as the center pieces, we have hotdogs and hamburgers. We already mentioned the family reunions above, but do you remember the food served? Mamaw’s fried chicken, Aunt Nina’s potato salad, Mom’s homemade yeast rolls and so many desserts. Carrot cakes, apple pies and cobblers all made from scratch line the picnic tables.

Dads across the country slip into their “Kiss the Cook” aprons and fire up grills to the point you can smell the smoke from several backyards as you enter the cul-de-sac. I can fondly remember paper plates almost folding under the weight of all the food, especially when I laid that heavily buttered corn cob on top. But the summertime feasts aren’t over just because school starts back, then we have tailgating to do. Back together this year, we will see everything from the simple kettles to the more advanced pellet cookers as the pre-game feasts commence.

Summertime Family

I enjoy my solitary time out on the creekbank fishing. It’s my time to reflect, prep for some of my clients and maybe even catch a few fish. But some of my most favorite is when I am there with my family. Both of my girls have been able to bait their own hooks even before they could ride bikes. They each have caught fish, fileted and eaten what we’ve caught. Then there are times when I, along with my cousins, would head to Camden Park, a local amusement park (one of the oldest in the nation) or a road trip with friends to King’s Island in Cincinnati. Vacations, ever how few there were, have still the fondest memories.

Two summers in a row when I was 9 and 10 years old, 13 family members loaded up into my Aunt and Uncle’s Winnebago to head to Florida. I had never been that far before nor seen the ocean. Funny thing is, I remember more of the family on the trip than I do the sights we saw.

Summer is here and I am glad to share it with you. Let us know what you think of when you think of summer and share it on our Facebook page, www.facebook.com/nbbqa