I guess I was a privileged child. Growing up, we had 2 homes. On the last day of school, we packed up the cars and drove an hour to New Jersey to our summer house, affectionately called, "The Lake". It was a delightful 'lake community' where everyone knew each other. My cousins had the house next door and my other cousins had a house about a mile away. Whereas we never left the house when we were in our "regular" home, we spent nearly all of our waking hours outside the house when we went to "The Lake".
We met up with the same bunch of friends year after year. Mornings were spent taking swimming lessons and afternoons were spent playing softball, volleyball, badminton or basketball. After dinner each evening, we would all meet at the beach, once again, just to sit and talk. On Friday nights, we all walked to the "hilltop" (a large empty building at the top of the hill) to watch a movie together. In later years, I worked every summer at The Lake through high school and college as a Lifeguard and the Hilltop became a 'makeshift dance club' on Saturday nights. Those were simpler times.... We really and truly "grew up" together.
In years to come, my parents sold the house at The Lake, but my Aunt and Uncle still kept their house next door. Some of my cousins married and moved there permanently. I took my kids there every summer for a week when they were growing up. They, too, have fond memories of spending time with the cousins, going swimming each day, and roasting marshmallows each night as my Uncle made his infamous bonfires.
Once again, I will sing the praises of Facebook..... I recently reconnected with an old friend from so many years ago.... Bonnie, too, left her regular house and spent summers at "The Lake". She lives approximately 10 minutes from me now, yet we have not seen each other in over 40 years. We met at a local little bistro for a most delightful evening. It was so good to rekindle those memories of such wonderful summers. I am delighted to say that even after all these years, the evening was just so comfortable. Our roots were planted firmly years ago: learning to swim, playing sports and coming of age. Catching up was just a formality as the connection was just so strong. The thing we both recalled with such sweetness, was the simplicity of life back then...... was it our youth or have things really changed so much?
