Another this and that

 So it’s finally summer.  The weather is hot and muggy, and I am glad I bought that portable air conditioner for my bedroom.

I was on the phone with my friend Jenn yesterday.  I’ve known Jenn for decades, she went to college with my sister, and she became like family.  Her eldest son is just six months older than my daughter Jen, and her sons refer to my daughters as their cousins, and visa versa. Family isn’t just blood.  Sometimes it’s who you choose to be with.

We refer to my daughter as “single N Jen” and my friend as “twin N Jenn”.  Say that out loud, you'll smile, maybe even giggle.

The topic turned to Father’s Day, and the two of us reminisced about my father.  He mentored Jenn when she decided to go back to school to become a teacher.  That was something he liked to do, encourage new teachers and future teachers.

There are days when I really miss him.

There was a post in one of my Facebook groups, that we should all share happy childhood memories.  And the first thing that popped into my head was about my father.

He had a summer job for many years, like many teachers he worked at a day camp.  My sisters and I got to go to camp every summer because he worked there. The last camp summer was when I was 12, Honey was 11 and the twins were just two months shy of their 5th birthday.  

One of the things he liked to do … when it was just me and Honey at camp … he’d pick a day to stay late, and when everyone else was gone, Honey and I would swim in the pool while my father recorded our antics with his movie camera.    Somewhere in my mother’s closet there are still reels of 8 mm film, with my 8-year-old self jumping off the diving board over and over again,

How wonderful summers were back then.