The summer of..... 1999?

Some of my cousins by the pool

I remember when growing up and the temperature hit 40 degrees we got sent home from school, back in the day before air con, instead just squeaky ceiling fans to try and keep us cool in those steamy demountables! We would speculate all day if we were going to be sent home and cheer when we did, it didn't happen to ofter, maybe once a summer but when it did happen it was amazing! I can also tell you on the days it didn't happen it was just disgustingly hot and not enjoyable one bit, the disappointment after thinking you were going to get sent home and instead being kept at school to finish the day!

After being sent home I would eat no frills vanilla ice-cream with chocolate sprinkles or make chocolate quick with HEAPS of ice cream in it before hitting the pool with all of my friends. Weather it was  in our pool or one of the other girls pools it was always a good time. Pool noodles were always around to be used in all sorts of strange ways including being added to our invented (or so we thought) 'dizzy flip', this is where you dive into the water and do a forward flip under the water leaving you dizzy, including the pool noodle between your legs like a horse and doing this made you even more dizzy! If our parents weren't home we would push the garbage bins up against our back fence and jump off those into the pool (sorry mum & dad!) doing all sorts of flips and jumps. We were strictly told not to do this and its not like we did it all the time but sometimes my brother and I would come together instead of fighting each other and plot some fun! 

I can remember fires burning up on the escarpment and us planning to do sleep overs at friends houses just streets further away to be safe but never really comprehending the seriousness of it all.. We would hear about horrible fires, in particulate a series of fires burning not far from where I grew up one Christmas, smelling the smoke for days on end but never really being aware of the people loosing their homes and lives.  

I was lucky as grew up a short walk to most of my friends houses, whether it would mean walking to the cul de sac just down the road or down 2 sets of alley ways to get there rarely with shoes on our feet and often our bikes not far from site.I remember many blisters on the soles of my feet from the hot road but it never really bothering me. If we were all together we were often on our bikes, riding around the streets near our house and creating fun from nothing. You could always tell where we all were as there would often be 8 bikes parked on the grass outside but only until the street lights came on and we would scurry back home for dinner.

Summer in our house would be endless BBQ's some good and some just burnt! While dad would cook the BBQ while I would often try and train our Jack Russel named Brutus to do tricks but he was always more interested in the BBQ and picking up any scraps that dad might drop! After dinner would often be shower and bed time - I remember crying one night as 8:30pm rolled around, we could still hear other kids playing outside as the sun was yet to go down yet my brother and I were being put to bed. The things you remember hey!

One of my fondest summer memories would be growing up at Surf Club, I started as a nipper at about age 5 and only left when I moved out of the area at about 20. We spend what feels like endless weekends at the beach, hanging out with a different group of friends, learning to surf of on foam nipper boards and later on rescue boards - I don't think you are suppose to stand up on those. I was at the beach over the weekend and seen a group of young girls probably about 10 yeas old doing the same thing, there were about 6 of them and they would all catch the same wave and all try and get to their feet, cheering each other along once they did. It awoke a feeling deep inside, its one of those memories that I will never forget! Often over the summer holidays we would all go camping together, it would be something like 25 families and we would create a tent city at various caravan parks on the South Coast. I'm not sure how long we actually went away for but to me it felt like weeks and weeks (in reality it was probably 2 weeks), this is the times that I seen my first of many shooting stars while I slept outside under the night sky, learnt to swiftly put up my own  2 man dome tent and pull it down in a just as swift manner, go exploring new towns and areas, climb old ruined lighthouses, watch the boys surf huge waves, catch endless fish, jump of wharfs and tree swings into water, build and maintain camp fires, burn our mouths on spaghetti in a can jaffles and eat endless afternoon ice blocks but only if we would bring home bags of ice for the eskys. We went to the Gold Coast for a family holiday one year but to be honest I wouldn't give up the memories of camping as a child for any type of exotic holiday, I feel we were so so lucky to have this and wouldn't change it for the world!  

On Surf Patrol while trying to get a tan (I don't look very lady like!) We drug the lounges down from the surf club so we didnt have to sit on the sand, that was a mission in itself!

How things change so quickly over the years, summer now when its 40 degrees outside means nothing more then another day at work, reminiscing of the days in the pool with not a worry in the world! Man do I miss those days, and hope I can create a memorable childhood for my children one day just like I had the privilege of!