Your Favorite summer memories

[grantgeneral78]

Now that summer is upon us, it spurs up memories of when I was a kid and other good times during the heat of summer. What was your favorite memory of summers past?



One of mine was walking over to Billies taste freeze on s.w. 59th and may and you could get a huge cup of ice for 5 cents then over to TG&Y by it and pickup a few car models!...fun stuff

[jmarkross]

Now that summer is upon us, it spurs up memories of when I was a kid and other good times during the heat of summer. What was your favorite memory of summers past?



One of mine was walking over to Billies taste freeze on s.w. 59th and may and you could get a huge cup of ice for 5 cents then over to TG&Y by it and pickup a few car models!...fun stuff

What brand of models...AMT?

[MikeOKC]

Nothing sums it up better than this:

OLD DAYS
Lyrics by James Pankow
Recorded by Chicago 1975

Old days
Good times I remember
Fun days
Filled with simple pleasures
Drive-in movies
Comic books and blue jeans
Howdy Doody
Baseball cards and birthdays
Take me back
To a world gone away
Memories
Seem like yesterday

Old days
Good times I remember
Gold days
Days I'll always treasure
Funny faces
Full of love and laughter
Funny places
Summer nights and streetcars
Take me back
To a world gone away
Boyhood memories
Seem like yesterday

Old days - in my mind and in my heart to stay
Old days - darkened dreams of good times gone away
Old days - days of love and feeling fancy free
Old days - days of magic still so close to me
Old days - in my mind and in my heart to stay
Old days - darkened dreams of good times gone away
Old days - days of love and feeling fancy free
Old days - days of magic still so close to me




I love to read the lyrics along with this song. One of my favorites!
Pankow said it was his most personal song, and his personal Chicago favorite, based on his own summer memories as a kid.

[Larry OKC]

Playing golf at the old Putt-Putt course on NW 39th

[kevinpate]

MikeOKC, THANK YOU!

I needed that in a big way.

[jmpokc1957]

Living in the Pacific Northwest( Oregon ) for the last 30 years the thing I miss the most is a fiercely hot, dry, mid west summer with a clear sky from horizon to horizon!

Will Rogers pool, walking to 7-11 for Icees and going to Braum's Ice Cream on NW 63 in the evening for ice cream. Beautiful, calm summer nights.

Let's quote Bob Seeger's "Night Moves" : "Lord, I remember...."

Yesterday, June 1, we had a low temp in the 40's and the high was mid 50's. Heat wave coming this weekend; 80 deg!

enjoy the summer

Mike

[OKCisOK4me]

Playing golf at the old Putt-Putt course on NW 39th

I talked about that place in another thread. I was probably about 7 then. I used to hop over the orange metal fence and go play on the railroad tracks behind the place!

I also remember just going to the neighborhood pool in Edmond with my mom and my sister. My mom would bring smoked oysters, sliced tomatoes that she had coated with salt and seasoning, and cheese and crackers. Those three items together were the best. I also remember Boy Scout activities and just camping in general. Good times, good times...

[Phoenix59]

My uncle was the manager at the Will Rogers Park pool for quite a few years when I was a kid. Many of my summers, I was there on a daily basis. Putt-putt on 39th, yeah, been there a time or 20.

I can remember hanging out at Lake Overholser (Lake Holdhercloser!) and, later, when I could drive, Lake Hefner. Riding my bike all over NW OKC (we lived near NW 23 and MacArthur and I rode as far south as a little south of NW 10th street, north as far as NW 63, west to Council Road and as far east as Meridian, sometimes a little farther, but it seemed like there was one heck of a hill to climb riding west from Portland to Meridian so not often. I'd never dream of allowing one of my kids to range that far these days!

Once I was riding on NW 10 headed east past MacArthur and a car turned off MacArthur onto 10th street and sideswiped me. Scuffed up my bike a bit, but it was still rideable and I wasn't really hurt. The driver was in a panic; he said he was a doctor and wanted to take me to the hospital to get checked out, but I declined. My parents never found out. I probably could have made a mint!

[rcjunkie]

Spent many a summer days driving to Salyer Lake near Binger Ok for a day of fun in the sun.

[jmpokc1957]

Yes, riding our bikes.

I would range far and wide on my bike. It was a Sears 10 speed. Remember when the 10 speed craze hit about 1970 or so? From near 63 and Meridian I would go out to Wiley Post Airport, Lake Overholster to buy fireworks, all around Lake Hefner. We'd spend all day fishing on the docks there. It was safe, so to speak, you always had to watch for traffic, but other than that a great place for kids to grow up.

I think the earth rotated more slowly in those days as summer seemed to last forever and I got so much more done in a day. Must be the global warming.

Mike

[MikeOKC]

I think the earth rotated more slowly in those days as summer seemed to last forever and I got so much more done in a day. Must be the global warming.

Mike

I read this just the other day about how it actually did go by slower (kind of, read the article).

[skyrick]

I remember going to my grandparents' cabin at Twin Lakes, between Crescent and Guthrie, every weekend of the summers of 1961-68.

My job was to mow the lot as soon as we got there. Grandpa made sure the lawn was well cared for; his was the only lot you could walk in barefoot, no stickers.

No TV, so during the day I:

Went to the swimming pool,

Hiked along the banks of the Cimarron River, with my cousins, looking for quicksand,

Walked up to the "office" by the entrance to get a strawberry Squeeze from the vending machine,

Listened to KOMA on the radio. My Grandma hated R&R, but she would listen with me while I told her who all the bands were and which part of each song I liked the best.

Read my Summer Weekly Reader.

At night my Mom, Grandparents and Aunts and Uncles would sit outside by the picnic table (yellow "bug proof" light bulbs strung all around), laughing, talking, smoking and drinking. My cousins, sisters and I would be inside, listening to the radio (still), playing cards, checkers and Wahoo, reading comic books, and acting like stupid giggly kids like everyone does when they hang out with their cousins. Sometimes the adults would take us to the pool at night for a swim, that was very cool.

We spent several days out there every 4th of July. $4.00 worth of fireworks would last all weekend.

All and all, it was a great time and place to be a kid.

PS: I miss The Cabin and my Grandma and Grandpa, not necessarily in that order.

[skyrick]

Walking to Memorial Park.

Every once in a while one of the teenage counselors in the Kiwanis Center would put the juke box on "free play". Listen to all the latest 45s just standing there in front of the juke box.

Go in the game room at the Kiwanis and play a board game or read some magazines.

Before the creek was dug up, laid with pipe and buried we would walk in the creek from Western to the Fire Station at 36th & Classen.
Mom: What happened to your clothes?
me: I "fell" in the creek!
Mom: Right!

Swing, teeter-totter, slide and merry-go-round. All considered "dangerous" now.

On Saturdays 3 or 4 of us would meet at the NW corner of the park by the Fire Station so we could hear the storm warning siren test at its loudest.

Throwing rocks at Shakespeare's bust. Hey, we were kids!

Leave the park and go browse comic books at the Rexall and TG&Y.

Go into Humpty Dumpty (air-conditioning!) on Thursday to see what free sample of food they were handing out.

On the way home go to the back of Bruno's to see if there was a huge box to drag home for a fort.

[skyrick]

I'm not done yet!

Digging holes in Ricky Bartlett's and Keith Darling's back yards. Just to be digging holes!

Jumping off of garage roofs.

Taking TV and radio tubes to June & Jim's (it later became the infamous Turk's) to test on the tube tester.

Over-nighters in back yards: Pat & Mike McCarty, Mike Newberry, Ricky B.

At night, chasing lightning bugs and running from "bats" (probably starlings) at the Harding HS baseball field, across the street from my Grandma.

Swimming at Harding's 7 foot deep pool every day from 2 til 3.

[mspivey]

Wow, Skyrick. Kinda the same stuff. Memorial Park with skateboards. Seems like I was in a chess club there. The bicycle hills around Deep Fork off Mattern Drive (NW 46). Rode my bike everywhere. Even rode it from 47th and Classen to the Fairgrounds to watch the drags. Didn't know then I would race over 300 times at the Speedway. They would incarcerate a parent for allowing that these days.

I also was Twin Lakes kid. Spent most weekends there, maybe a little earlier than you. Sand bottom swimming pool, perch in the ponds (lakes). Learned to drive up there. Gary Motley and I terrorized the residents. Many stories, wish I could remember them.

A little older, we made the circuit. Quicks, Bixlers, The Rancher's Daughter, The Delta. Maybe McDonalds in Bethany and Holly's. If we felt adventurous, The Spot or Potter's in MWC. We would pick up golf balls at Wedgewood to get gas money.

[skyrick]

Wow, Skyrick. Kinda the same stuff. Memorial Park with skateboards. Seems like I was in a chess club there. The bicycle hills around Deep Fork off Mattern Drive (NW 46). Rode my bike everywhere. Even rode it from 47th and Classen to the Fairgrounds to watch the drags. Didn't know then I would race over 300 times at the Speedway. They would incarcerate a parent for allowing that these days.

I also was Twin Lakes kid. Spent most weekends there, maybe a little earlier than you. Sand bottom swimming pool, perch in the ponds (lakes). Learned to drive up there. Gary Motley and I terrorized the residents. Many stories, wish I could remember them.

A little older, we made the circuit. Quicks, Bixlers, The Rancher's Daughter, The Delta. Maybe McDonalds in Bethany and Holly's. If we felt adventurous, The Spot or Potter's in MWC. We would pick up golf balls at Wedgewood to get gas money.

Hey! I remember my Grandpa mentioning the Spiveys! His name was Emil Cejda. My Grandma named Bluebird Lane, where their cabin was.

[capt_john_97]

When I was young we would go to the Will Rogers Riding Stable. I managed the Will Rogers Pool for almost 20 yrs in and around deployments and now they bansihed me to Woodsen pool.

[rcjunkie]

When I was young we would go to the Will Rogers Riding Stable. I managed the Will Rogers Pool for almost 20 yrs in and around deployments and now they bansihed me to Woodsen pool.

From Will Rogers to Woodson, who did you make mad. I worked for the Parks Dept. (maintenance) for 28 plus years, was often at Will Rogers and Woodson, may have met you at one time.

[Achilleslastand]

I can remember being dropped off at the hefner optimist pool and activity center and spending all day there.

[capt_john_97]

OMG the old bubble pool!! I totally forgot about it. I swam there in high school! they had a diving board and we would bounce on it and touch the top of the bubble. I was there when they tore that pool out. I soooo wanted to manage that pool!

[Achilleslastand]

OMG the old bubble pool!! I totally forgot about it. I swam there in high school! they had a diving board and we would bounce on it and touch the top of the bubble. I was there when they tore that pool out. I soooo wanted to manage that pool!

Actually back in the day there was no dome there the dome was put on later and if im not mistaken a swim team used to practice tho....
Still good times tho...

[capt_john_97]

yes eventually it became the Kerr Mcgee swim facility but several high schools used to swim there.

[PennyQuilts]

For me, summer meant sneaking out at night to go horseback riding in the lake (I'd ride my horse out far enough to where he had to swim, then drop back and hold onto his tail). We had to go after dark because the neighbors didn't want us in the lake. My best friend and I would pack lunches and be gone on horseback on the NE side of town before the sun was up - be gone all day. There was a drainage ditch right by Frontier City that was big enough to take the horses through and that was how we'd get past I-35.

[grantgeneral78]

If you notice in all of our memorys we all walked to surrounding locations unlike now when parents are basically forced to drive the kids there to be safe. It seems we were all so lucky to grow up in such a innocent time and is sad on the other hand kids today do not get to experience the things we have.

[skyrick]

If you notice in all of our memorys we all walked to surrounding locations unlike now when parents are basically forced to drive the kids there to be safe. It seems we were all so lucky to grow up in such a innocent time and is sad on the other hand kids today do not get to experience the things we have.

100% agreement.