Catch a Wave
August, summer is coming to a close. It makes me sad, I don’t want it to end. I love summer at the lake; I wish that summer could last forever. This summer has been so good though and I have to say there has been one day that has stood out. Its was the perfect summer day. These sort of days are rare and I am so thankful that it happened.
Here is what happened during the perfect summer day. It was so hot out and all anyone wanted to do was spend the day in the lake. The only time that we spend in doors was a break from the heat to eat lunch and at night once the mosquitos came out. We swam, skied and soaked up the sun. We even ate dinner out on the deck. I also spent some time taking part in my favourite past time, sitting of the decking reading a good book while sipping a cocktail. It was such a good day and it got me thinking about weekends during the summer when I was a kid. They were not that far off from what we had this week.
When I was a kid my Grandparents lived on a lake and my cousins lived next door to them. On the weekends during the summer we would all congregate on my Grandparents deck and then from there swimming and various water sports would take place. Us kids all took turns skiing, kneeboarding and tubing. I can’t remember a day that we didn’t have two boats going. When we were a little bit older we started to show off, 360s on the kneeboard, jumping off the dock while skiing, and trick skiing as well. There was a point in time were we would even go doubles behind one boat.
The hours that my Dad and Uncle pulled us kids around the lake felt endless, but at some point the adults told us to take a break and we would all come up on the deck dripping wet and laughing. Grandma would then make us all coke floats and we would stretch out in the sun. When our bathing suits were almost dry we would head back into the water. We would jump off the dock and the raft and swim until someone grabbed four pool noodles for us and we would swim out to the middle of the lake. We would sit out in the middle of the lake talking and laughing for such a long time. We do tricks on the noodles and try to shoot ourselves down as far as we could in the water until our toes touched the really cold water.
At some point, one of us would probably be shivering, we would head back into land and the deck and wrap ourselves in towels. The best days were when it was getting pretty late in the day and my Grandparents would order pizza for the whole family and we would all eat on the deck in our bathing suits. There was always more swimming after dinner and we would only head home when the sun started to go down. On those days my parents wouldn’t make us change before we climbed in the car instead we put our towels on the seats and we put our pyjamas on right when we got home.
As with many other things those summer days have faded into memories but days like those remind me of the fun that we had. I don’t have the energy to swim endlessly anymore but I can still do a pretty good dive. I really enjoyed laying out on the raft in the sun. The little kids aren’t into the water sports as much as were yet but they are still pretty young; they might get into it yet. Us adults still ski but it isn’t as easy as it was when we were kids and some of us, me for sure, were a little sore the next day.
My parents now live in the house on the lake that was my Grandparents and my Uncle still lives next door. While we don’t all gather together in the same way that we used to I like that there are things that we still do as adults and are now passing down to the next generation. I hope that we get to enjoy the lake for many years to come.