Karen Reivich

A few weeks ago, my daughter, Shayna, and I were sitting on our porch talking about how I used to spend my summers when I was eight. I told her about playing Kick the Can, walking to the neighborhood Creamery to buy ice cream, catching lightening bugs, having neighborhood water fights, fierce Wiffle ball competitions, stick races during rain storms, day long kick ball tournaments, going frogging, chasing after the ice cream truck, Nerf football games, Tiddly Winks, sleeping in a makeshift tent, and making go carts out of plywood. Shayna was fascinated and I was nostalgic. The more vividly I described how I spent my summer when I was eight, the more she wanted that to be how she spent her summer at age eight.

So Shayna and I designed an “Old Fashioned Summer”. We picked the games, food, TV shows, music and candy that filled my summer and planned for Shayna and her friends to experience summer from 1974. I went online and bought candy from the 1970s (Laffy Taffy, Bottle Caps, Wacky Packs, Pixy Sticks, Pop Rocks – I passed on the Candy Cigarettes); I taught them the finer points of Kick the Can and Tiddly Winks; I played Saturday Night by the Bay City Rollers and The Locomotion by Grand Funk; we watched an episode of Happy Days (ahhhh, Chachi!) and we filled trash cans with water for the water fight of all water fights!

Shayna was underwhelmed by a few of the games – Man Hunt and Capture the Flag are “way, way, better” than Kick the Can, according to Shayna.  Tiddly Winks was frustrating and Necco Wafers weren’t a favorite. But the neighborhood water fight was a huge hit and stick racing along the curb during the last downpour was a fan favorite. For me, the best part was getting to share my memories of being eight with my eight year old. So, one day this summer, plan a Summer Day from when you were your child’s age. It’s a fun way to connect with your kids and a great way to relive some of what made your childhood great.

Sincerely,

Karen