I love summer. Really. I loooove summer with its slower pace, longer evenings, green trees & tall glasses of sweet tea with lemon. I just read a post on summer written by my friend Serenity at Serenity Now about how happy she is to have her kids home with her. That reminded me (of course) about my summer days.
When I was a kid in the 60s my summer was very different than my friends. Both of my parents worked full time so my days were overseen by the most wonderful sitter named Betty Bearss. She was from Philadelphia, a fact she reminded me of as she served me a yummy dessert of pineapple & chunks of Philadelphia cream cheese.
Betty was an ardent Democrat and adored Hubert Humphrey. (For you young’uns Humphrey was a very popular senator who had a long & fruitful career in D.C. He was an early supporter of civil rights & made a failed run for the presidency.) I think I was the only 8 year old who knew the entire history of the Democratic party!
My family did not go to church at that time. I attended a Lutheran school from K thru 8th grade so my knowledge of different religions was very limited. Betty was a serious Christian Scientist. On weekends that my parents were working or out of town, I would go to church with her. May I just say there is a huge difference between Lutherans & Christian Scientists?
Betty’s granddaughter, Glenna, lived with her. Glenna was 2 years younger than I. We were both only children so each summer we would each struggle to be the Alpha kid. I don’t know how Betty put up with us! Well, I do. She was a stern disciplinarian but you always felt that she loved you. When punishment was over there was always a hug & often a small treat at the kitchen table while she told us why we should behave better.
Glenna & I spent summers roller skating, running through sprinklers, playing croquet (does anyone do that anymore?) and waiting on Wednesday for the Helms man to come. Helms was a huge bakery in Los Angeles. They had a fleet of trucks that went to neighborhoods all over the metropolitan area. When the Helms man came he tooted his horn & pulled into the driveways. He would hop out of the truck and open the doors on the sides and the back to display everything from bread to the most amazing donuts ever. There were cakes, pies, and rolls also. All of these were freshly baked early that morning & delivered to the customer as fresh as could be. How I miss that!
I found a fellow book junkie in Betty and Glenna. Instead of an afternoon nap we had an afternoon 1 hour reading break. She completely understood my desire to do nothing but read all day, even though she would throw me out the door to go do something else! Another love of hers was wrestling, which bears very little resemblance to the wrestling of today. She loved to watch the “fights” as she called them & talked often of her favorites & villains.
Betty died quite a while back. She was an amazing woman and to this day I thank God that my summers included her loving care.
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