It's Summer Now, Because...........

Last weekend was Memorial Day Weekend.  My wonderful hubby and I took off on our Harley Blue and traveled to the Cleveland area to visit friends.  We decided also to go into Amish country and stay the night after our visit with friends.  It was so much fun, checking out different countryside, the sun was shining but it was still on the cool side, the further north we went the cooler it became.  We were prepared, I could plug in my windbreaker anytime I wanted to get warm and wonderful hubby had his leather chaps and coat.  

My mind tends to think of things while riding, I wish I could immediately write down some of my thoughts.  My thoughts are as fleeting as the wind that rushes past as we travel down the two lane roads of Ohio sometimes.  I have written numerous blogs in my mind, only to lose them in the wind.

This one stayed with me the entire weekend, because I kept being reminded of things I remember growing up, things that seemed to have been forgotten and suddenly remembered because of a scent, a glimpse or a sound and it all comes flooding back.

IT'S SUMMER NOW, because..............

It is Memorial Day, or Decoration Day as I remember calling it while growing up.
           A time to honor our Veterans who were buried in cemeteries across the country, who served        to keep us free.

American Flags fly from houses, streetlamps, flagpoles and they decorate cemeteries.

Cemeteries are visited and the flowers brighten the landscape of headstones.

Parades are held in every small town, holding up traffic because the town streets are closed.

Firetrucks, bands and Honor Guards march and people line the streets to watch, waving their own hand held flags.

Children are on bicycles, some are even decorated.

Swimming pools are opened and chlorine is in the air.

Campgrounds are full of tents and RV's.

Lawn chairs circle the campfires with friendships and families being renewed by a long weekend.
          I love the smells of campfires, bringing with it many of my own memories of camping,
          friends, family and horses.............

Lawns full of cars and grills fired up, wonderful scents of cooking out are in the air.

Yards being mowed and hayfields needing to be cut.  

Hay that had been mowed, the fragrance is the best summer smell in the world.


Flowers blooming, Peonies and Iris are always my reminder of Memorial Day.

Big old houses, with lace window dressings and big front porches and Boston Ferns, with wicker chairs waiting, anyone for ice tea or homemade ice cream?

Tank tops, shorts and flip flops.....  

Coppertone sun lotion (they call it sunscreen today)

Windows are open, curtains dancing in the breeze.....

Birds singing, frogs croaking and Harley's rumbling......

Yes, it is summer now...................