It's a brand new month--the 8th one of 2012. Still summer so kids are swimming, running lemonade stands, and skateboarding. It's also time for you to add to your Family Memories Notebook.
Think back to August in your childhood or even your young adult years. What kind of activities did your family do in this last month before school started? Was August always a vacation time for your family? Did your mother start shopping for back-to-school supplies and/or clothes? Did she spend hours canning produce from the family garden? Did you go to baseball games? Or maybe listen to them on the radio? Did you make long trips to the beach? Or swimming hole or a pool?
Did you have a park nearby or play in your own backyard? Or were you like me, growing up in a large apartment building that offered a concrete courtyard in back for kids to play? We played a game called Chinese Stoop Tag on top of the many sewer covers in that large play space. We played 7-up with a rubber ball that we bounced on the brick wall. We played Tag and Hide-and-Seek. What games did you play with your siblings and friends during August?
What kinds of foods did your family eat in August? Maybe sweet corn dripping with butter or peaches picked from your own trees. Potato salad, hot dogs, burgers, baked beans--all picnic food.
What was the weather like where you lived in August? Hot and sultry? Hot and dry? Cool and rainy? Miserable or delightful? How did you keep cool? Air-conditioning, floor fans, ceiling fans, in-window fans, attic fans? What sounds did you hear through an open window as you lay in bed trying to go to sleep? Crickets? Birds? Barking dogs? Trains? Cars bumping along a brick street?
Maybe some of the above will trigger long-ago memories for you. Write about all these things and add it to your Memory Book. Is there a particular family story you want to add? Don't say I'll do it later. Do it now before life steps in and pushes the thoughts farther back into the recesses of your mind.
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