Thank God it’s Monday, again. I LOVE Mondays! They’re my 52 Chances a year, in which I get to share Memories of My Mom with you. Therefore, happy Monday and happy June!
Summer unofficially began on Memorial Day. However, the actual Summer Solstice doesn’t start for almost three weeks. Regardless, the whole month of June will be celebrating summer, camping, the great outdoors, and more.
‘Tis the season for outdoor fun and being “at one” with nature. Michiganders get so cooped up during the long winter months that we’re always excited to get out and celebrate spring’s warmer temperatures. Now, we’re even more anxious to dive into the sizzling summertime celebrations.
Inspired by an article I read about six years ago, at BeautyAndTips.com, 10 Fun Things to do in the Summer, I’ve been creating short, annual bucket lists of five special things I want to experience or do each summer.
This year, my list included seeing Cadillac’s Kiss Monument, Traverse City’s Mission Point Lighthouse, Charlevoix’s “Mushroom Houses”, and Boyne Falls, as well as hunting for Petoskey stones on various Lake Michigan beaches.
Just last week was National Photography Month and the long Memorial Day weekend. Thus, my husband and I packed up our cameras (aka: cell phones), a cooler, and some other stuff and headed north; hitting the road for National Road Trip Day and National Cooler Day. Unfortunately, northern Michigan was still a bit chilly.
The weekend’s daily high temperatures, in the “Tip of the Mitt”, were only in the upper 50s and lower 60s. But the sunshine and blue skies made it seem so much nicer. I was able to check all the boxes on my 2025 bucket list and then some, during the Memorial weekend. Next year, I’m hoping to explore more of Michigan’s beautiful Upper Peninsula.
While we were site seeing and rock hunting, we were surprised to see so many families celebrating the chilly weekend on Lake Michigan’s beaches; as well as wading in the cold lake, where the water temperature was, at most, 60°F. Did you know that swimming is one of the most popular summertime activities in Michigan?
We recalled when we were young, being anxious to go swimming before we even got out of school for the summer but the early June water was usually still too cold. Some kids are already enjoying their long summer, school breaks. Others will be joining them during the next couple of weeks. Almost all will be relishing their summer breaks by Father’s Day.
“A SMILE IS the universal, unspoken language between us. Some people smile more easily than others, but a smile is as good as a hug. I just LOVE people who smile a lot! Even when I’m shopping or [when Paul and I are] walking around the campgrounds on one of our abbreviated ‘get-aways’ with our motor home, I find myself smiling at people I have never seen before and they smile back. It’s contagious!” – Gloria Pitzer, “You’ve Made A Friend”, This is not a Cook Book! It’s Gloria Pitzer’s Food for Thought (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; Oct. 1986, p. 43).
Michigan is one of the most beautiful states in which to enjoy an abundance of northern, outdoor, summertime events like hiking, biking, going to the beach – which, in itself, encompasses a wide range of sand and water activities and sports – going to a drive-in movie or an amusement park or open-air concert. By the way, Friday is National Drive-In Movie Day.
Like our parents, my husband and I always enjoy Michigan’s great outdoors – peaceful walks through lovely nature preserves, public gardens and sculpture parks, wooded trails near beautiful waterfalls and rivers, around The Great Lakes’ lighthouses, and along its beaches; as well as through art fairs, farmers’ markets, and other outdoor bazaars.
Michigan has the longest freshwater coastline in the U.S. It’s 3,288 miles and borders four of the five Great Lakes. Regardless of water type, Michigan is second only to Alaska in total length of coastline (sea or fresh). If you’re near any one of Michigan’s gorgeous shorelines when the sun is shining, you’ll see the water reflecting the beautiful azure color.
A few years ago, on one of my local news shows, a newscaster* mentioned that over 65% of born-and-bred Michiganders tend to remain in Michigan; which is more than any other states’ residents, remaining in the states of their births, with the exception of Louisiana (at 72%). Mom and Dad were proud Michiganders. I don’t want to live anywhere else, either.
[*NOTE: Report was from Derek Kevra (Jan. 5th, 2022), FOX2 News, Detroit area. I didn’t hear what his source was, but I found similar information, online, at https://stacker.com/stories/2462/states-most-born-and-bred-residents and https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-05/mobile-vs-stuck-who-lives-in-their-u-s-birth-state.]
FROM MOM’S MEMORIES…
How I Spent my Summer Vacation (And Other Fond Memories of Days Gone By)
By Gloria Pitzer, as seen in her syndicated column, “No Laughing Matter” (circa 1970s)
I SEE THE NEIGHBORHOOD kids are in the spirit of summer… and it makes me remember, quite fondly, those days during which our own five youngsters were home and very much underfoot.
Although, some of the memories are pleasantly enjoyed today, in the absence of our offspring, some of those by-gone days were not all pretzels and beer! I recall really trying to enjoy summer vacation, even though I had the feeling I was just a first grade version of ‘See Mother Run’.
Most of the vacation weeks (and I use the reference loosely), were spent wandering through aspirin lectures, asking perfect strangers: ‘How many more days until school opens?’ As I [recall], we stopped spending vacations with the children; considering how, one summer, we spent 2 weeks on the turnpike… and lived to tell about it…
There honestly were positive virtues to the 9am to 3pm [school] schedules, which left us mothers 5 days a week, from September through June, during which we were not answering dumb questions. For one thing, it was none of the kids’ business why I looked pale and plump in a bathing suit.
I knew, the minute I walked into Chubby Chicks’ Swimwear Boutique, summer (for me) would mean running under the lawn sprinkler in very dark glasses and a body shirt, cleverly created out of a porch awning by some ‘shut-in’ from General Hospital!
Actually, it was my husband’s idea, out of consideration for the neighbors, that he only let me sit on the patio in my bathing suit after dark. He also claimed that I discouraged mosquitos. This is the same man who would stand on the porch, whenever I sang in the shower, so the neighbors could see that he was not beating me!
The same man, mind you, who would come home from (and I quote him exactly) ‘an exhausting day of fishing’ and ask, seriously – when was I planning to clean off the top of the refrigerator, did I write to his mother, did I have fun at the Book Mobile with 5 kids and would it be alright if we ‘ate out’…
That, by his definition, was hot dogs in the backyard over a fire in the grill that I would have to make. He just didn’t understand why I spent my summer vacation counting the days ‘til school opened again! But then he never had to find band aids for braless Barbie dolls and G.I. Joe, who got sucked into the vacuum cleaner hose periodically.
My lovable, better half never had to wander through a vast wasteland of Pop Tart wrappers and Mr. Misty cups; while 7 neighborhood kids motorbiked their way through the yard, the flower beds and into the center of a National Noise Abatement Program, sympathetically excused by 3 probation officers who didn’t live next to them!
Summer vacation, as some laughingly refer to those 10 weeks [mid-June to September], is NOT a vacation. [It’s] more like an endurance test – during which, those families who stayed together, got on each other’s nerves!
It was enough to leave a mother looking like a wire service photo that, by all rights, should have been printed under the caption: ‘NEVER MIND SENDING HER KIDS TO CAMP – HELP SEND THIS MOTHER AWAY!’
It’s mothers that need the vacation – not the kids! Ten weeks of kids at home and Mother could develop the personality of a dental drill with a voice to match! But, as I recall, telling the 5 kids, one day, ‘everything would be alright as soon as Daddy got home.’
And the questions I had to answer all by myself – questions like: ‘How many more days until school starts?’, ‘Can I have a popsicle?’, ‘Can I have my allowance?’, ‘How come you’re always yelling at me?’, ‘Have you seen my tennis shoes?’, ‘Why doesn’t anybody like me?’… and those were just the questions my HUSBAND asked!
Compared to all those [questions] that the kids would ask me during the day, I could [better] take those which my husband posed to me. He meant well. But he never did understand that a mother’s vacation doesn’t start until school does!
LAST THOUGHTS…
Michigan.org’s “20+ Things to Do in Michigan: Your Ultimate Summer Bucket List” also offers a lot of great ideas for things to do in Michigan. I’ve personally done more than half of their very fascinating list of Michigan sites/activities.
Thanks for visiting! I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about my memories of my mom, her memories, and other related things. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to email me at therecipedetective@outlook.com. You can also find me on Facebook: @TheRecipeDetective.
IN CLOSING…
In honor of June, being National Candy Month, AND today, being National Rocky Road Day, here’s Mom’s copycat recipe for Rocky Road Bark, Like Sanders (from her imitation for Chocolate Almond Bark, Like Sanders); as seen in… Gloria Pitzer’s Cookbook – The Best of the Recipe Detective (Balboa Press; Jan. 2018, p. 233). [A revised reprint of Gloria Pitzer’s Better Cookery Cookbook (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; May 1983, 3rd Edition)]. As always, I’m asking only for proper credit if you care to re-share it.
P.S. Food-for-thought until next Monday…
June observes… National Fresh Fruit and Vegetables Month, National Caribbean American Month, National Country Cooking Month, National Dairy Month, National Iced Tea Month, National Papaya Month, National Soul Food Month, and National Rose Month – among other things.
This week celebrates, among other things… National Gardening Week.
Today is also… National Rotisserie Chicken Day. Today (for 2025) is also… National Leave The Office Early Day.
Tomorrow is… National Egg Day, National Repeat Day, and National Chocolate Macaroons Day.
Wednesday, June 4th, is… National Cheese Day, National Cognac Day, and National Hug Your Cat Day.
Thursday, June 5th, is… National Gingerbread Day and National Veggie Burger Day.
June 6th, is… National D-Day, National Gardening Exercise Day, and National Applesauce Cake Day. Plus, as the first Friday in June (for 2025), it’s also… National Doughnut Day.
June 7th, is… National Chocolate Ice Cream Day and National Oklahoma Day. Plus, as the first Saturday in June (for 2025), it is also… National Trails Day, National Bubbly Day, and National Play Outside Day [which is the first Saturday of every month].
June 8th, is… National Best Friends Day. Plus, as the second Sunday in June (for 2025), it’s also… National Children’s Day. Additionally, it’s the start of… Men’s Health Week and National Flag Week.
This may also be the start of Big Boy’s Birthday Week (for 2025), as it’s usually celebrated during the week leading up to Big Boy’s birthday (National Big Boy Day), which is the following Sunday, June 15th.
Mom has 111 Big Boy recipe imitations listed in her Master Index (B), as it was always one of her and Dad’s favorite noshes. Wherever they traveled, they’d stop if there was a Big Boy because they knew they’d always get great food and friendly service.
Have a great week!
…22 down and 30 to go!
