Oh, how my summers have changed...
Clichéd and all as it sounds, it really
does just seem like only yesterday, that summer holidays from school started
with a trip to the Zoo. The first sunny
day after the kids finished in early July I would pack up the car with all necessary
supplies and we would head over to the Phoenix Park. There we would pass happy
hours marvelling at the exotic creatures until they started to flag – the
children that is, not the exotic creatures.
The final few enclosures could be a bit tortuous but it was always a
great day, well except for the traffic on the quays on the way home.
Summer also meant a visit to
Glenroe Farm in Wicklow, usually with the cousins. A good summer meant we may get there more
than once. With the sun on our backs we
would wander around talking to donkeys, cows and pigs before finally choosing a
picnic table or two on which we would spread our food and treats. Afterwards the kids would do another round of
the animals or just spend an hour in ‘pets corner’ while the mammies and the
grannies stayed and chatted or gossiped.
It was bliss.
But days out weren’t always so
organised. Most summers we had countless
picnics in the local park which has a great playground which would keep them
amused for at least an hour while I read my book. Or we could go to the river bank – well
stream bank really – with our fishing nets to catch pinkeens – on the strict
understanding we threw them back. Or we
could just sit on the grass making daisy chains or eating ice cream.
Other days we could head to the
beach at Killiney for a walk and for skimming stones or to Sandycove for a
paddle.
The last summer treat, which began
as they got a little older, was to take a trip down the N11 to Bray. Old fashioned fun which carried echoes of my
own childhood as we sampled rides on the bumper cars, the ghost train and the
Waltzers. We also had a budget amount of
small change to lose on the slot machines.
The best part of the day though was ending with a bag of chips and a
coke consumed in the car as we watched the sea through rapidly steaming up
windows.
I miss eating chips from a bag in
the car. I miss paddling. I miss daisy chains. Hell I even miss catching pinkeens.
But we weren’t always out. Every summer began in the hope of lots of
warm weather and so we bought a paddling pool which over the years got bigger
and very slightly more sophisticated.
But we had one rule for our paddling pool – it had to be able to
accommodate the end of the garden slide.
On those sunny days, before water charges were even a glint in a
Minister’s eye, I would rig up the garden hose to the top of the slide and off
they would go; an aqua park in the back garden.
It made a muddy mess of the lawn and many bushes got permanently damaged
from small bodies careering into them at high speed but it was the best of
craic, even just for the observer.
As the summer slipped towards
autumn, we bought new schoolbags and school socks in Dunnes Stores and
assembled the books for the coming year without needing a mortgage.
We also paid a visit to the toy
store and the art shop to treat ourselves to some indoor activities for the
winter; games and crafts and colouring books and crayons. God I miss the excuse to lie on the floor for
an hour colouring in. Talk about being
in the moment – ‘colouring in’ is the most amazing de-stresser.
I miss spending hours in the kids
section of the bookshop among so many beautifully illustrated and magical
books.
But that’s what happens with kids –
suddenly your sunny, exuberant, up for anything darlings leave junior school
and head into secondary. They get very
tall and all of a sudden you are not great craic anymore (well you are, but
never in public).
And while as a parent you relish
the new freedom their independence affords you, there are things you will miss
and will probably continue to miss until some day you will be called ‘granny’
and get to do them again.
But until that day comes, I vow that this summer I will return to the Zoo - on my own if necessary. I might even paddle in Sandycove. And come late August if you spot me in the local toy shop buying a colouring book and a box of crayons.... say nothing. Oh and it is true that we view the past through rose tinted specs.... but they were the best of times.... honestly.
