Summer Memories (and mischief) – part 3

In my last blog I wrote about some of the fun things we did at our family’s summer cottage, Hickory Lodge, in northwestern NJ. There are so many things we enjoyed while there and this blog will talk about more of them and, a little mischief we may have been part of too.

One of the things that my twin brother and I enjoyed using in our early teens were sling shots. We liked to shoot targets like cans and bottles and sometimes other things too. We were always looking for a challenge! In front of our cottage, across the dirt road, was another cottage that had a corrugated aluminum roof. This got us to wondering a couple of things a) could we reach the roof with our slingshots when hiding behind our cottage b) what kind of noise would the small stones from our slingshots make when it hit the metal roof.

It turned out that a) our slingshots easily reached the metal roof b) the small stones made a “nice” loud whack when they hit the roof! Well, we thought that all of this was pretty funny and harmless as the stones were too small to do any damage. We even had more laughs when the homeowner would come out and say “whoever is throwing stones on the roof please stop”. This went on for a while until the neighbor next to our cottage was chatting with the metal roof homeowner and said he was pretty sure he knew who was causing the mischief. Busted!

Back in the sixties people didn’t eat out nearly as much as they do now so going to a restaurant for a nice dinner was a real treat. We’d get several cottages together and all go to dinner at a nearby restaurant. Beforehand, everyone would gather on someone’s front screen porch for cocktails and snacks. The adults enjoyed their martinis, very popular in the sixties, while us kids got to join in with our “Shirley Temple” cocktails. . After cocktail hour we’d form a caravan of three or four cars and drive to the restaurant. Usually we’d be all dressed up because that was what you did back then when you went out to eat. Lots of good food and laughter at those dinners!

But most of the time we’d eat dinner in our cottages. After our dinner we’d often get a craving for ice cream so we would drive to the closest Dairy Queen about ten miles away. Getting there was part of the fun! We’d take scenic backroads that took us past lots of pretty farms and pastures and many interesting old country homes. I was a skinny kid and never worried about calories so I was able to eat ice cream cones, sundaes, etc. to my heart’s content. My favorites were hot fudge sundaes and strawberry sundaes. A delicious sundae out in the countryside was the perfect ending to a fun filled summer day!

So these are some of my wonderful childhood summer memories. Just writing about them makes me smile! I’m sure that you also have some childhood summer memories that you like to think back on. I’d love to hear about them!