I don’t know why but I keep hearing and noticing wrens around here this summer. Maybe they were common before and I just didn’t really notice them. I’m also noticing that I’m hearing a lot of cat birds singing which I don’t remember noticing as much before. The wrens though hare reminding me of going to Bonner’s with my grandparents. I spent many a warm or hot summer day outside playing there growing up and I don’t remember hearing many birds singing.

Today is a much cooler day compared the the hot and humid weather we’ve been having. It certainly made working out a lot nicer than it has been.

Today has been much cooler and drier than it has been. It really reminds me of going to the mountains when I was a kid where the evenings were much cooler than the Philly suburbs.

I am sitting here hearing the wind occasionally and it’s reminding me a lot of going to the mountains with Pop and/or my dad as a kid growing up. My dad went more during the fall and winter for hunting plus at that time he wasn’t umpiring and my brothers weren’t playing baseball. One of the things that I remember so fondly is the first fall days like this which it would be cold and windy and the first snow flurries of the year which I’m sure they had today.

My Nan and Pop didn’t have much money and always made what was available work for them. I was always very close to them. When I was a kid I took an interest in gardening and wanted a greenhouse. My Grandfather built one in his back yard. It was just a small wooden frame with various recycled windows he had around or got at work I guess. He built a couple of shelves in there and it surprisingly worked really well.

I never really understood the big deal about new years or the ball dropping or any of that shit at all. This year just strikes me because of the specific number. I just remember at some assembly in elementary school they kept talking about the future and 2020 and to me it was unimaginable to think that far ahead or that I’d even be alive it just seemed so far away.

We didn’t have a lot of money growing up. We didn’t do anything other than going to the mountains which was cheap and Sesame Place once a year because my dad got free tickets because his work made parts for them. We did often go to the nearby Neshaminy state park. It was mostly hiking but occasionally fishing at the marina. We went there very often when my dad got home from work.

It’s funny how odd little things can trigger memories of things past. We were sitting at a park yesterday enjoying the sunshine and in the park you could hear the traffic off in the distance on 283. There was also occasional gun shots at the nearby shooting range. Both of these things along with being outside really had me thinking of growing up going to Hazleton with my dad or my grandparents to go to the mountains.

As this is the time of the year that would have been getting closer to my dad’s birthday and also the time of the year he dies suddenly it’s had me thinking a lot and remembering a lot of thing growing up. One of those things that I always have fond memories of is getting pizza from Luca Pizza that was in the Woodhaven mall. That was really the only “going out to eat” we did growing up since the money wasn’t there.

When we were kids we were never fat like so many kids are today. Until middle school we walked everywhere we went if my dad was working since he was the only one that drove (not that we really went anyplace due to lack of money but that’s another story.) I can remember walking to the Woodhaven Mall when I was a toddler and we lived at my grandparents. That was only a few blocks though.

Yesterday’s post really made me remember how much fun we’d have climbing trees as kids. I think it was a daily occurrence during the summer when we had off school. I remember climbing trees all the time when I was in elementary school. We’d see who could climb the highest. Pine trees were the easiest to climb. Looking out of the top was always fun! We also had very tall trees we could climb if you could get up to the first branches.

Sitting here reading something online I’m hearing the kids out side playing basketball where the neighbors have a basketball net up. Kids spend entirely too much time staring at a screen or playing video games. When we were growing up we were outside from morning until the street lights came on and supper time. We had to be in the house for supper and everyone stayed at the table to everyone was done eating.

Something has reminded me of the time we discovered the cool colors that are produced if you brought a magnet close to a TV screen. This wouldn’t work on a modern flat screen LCD TV but the old big box picture tube types it did. The magnet made rainbow types of discolorations around it when the television was turned on. Eventually the screen got messed up and it didn’t go away.