In the summer it is very hard for me to put aside a thousand memories of where I grew up and think about life as it is now. I was cleaning out my office today (still), going through dozens of books that I have not read in ages and do not need for research and have no sentimental attachment to and thus really need to let them go (which I am doing) when I came across THE BIG HOUSE by George Howe Colt about his family's vacation home in Massachusetts. I thought maybe it was time to add this one to the looming giveaway pile but just a minute reading a random page reminded me all over again why I love it so much. My family never had a vacation home (please) but all those summertime memories are ours in spades. I have bare feet and screen doors slamming and ice tea and fireflies and sand and waves and beach chairs in the surf and fishing and boats and hair in a ponytail to cool off my neck.
It's hot in Florida right now, crazy hot actually and I don't want to be down there sweating through the summer. But I do want to be back there then, in 1980, when everyone I cared about was still going to live forever and the summer always seemed like it would never end and the beach was always the best place in the world to be.
THE BIG HOUSE went back on the shelf, just as it should.
[Florida coast, 1945, LIFE]
June 27
2011
04:44 AM
Thanks a million for evoking wonderful summer memories---for me it's the childhood yearly trips to South Carolina to be with Aunts, Uncles and cousins, Scout and other camps through the years, glorious family vacations...and more. Every summer now I yearn for some of those times given my own children are now grown. I am eager to next share these adventures with 2 year old William, soon, a summer very soon.