Grandma's House

My one grandma lives in Pennsylvania and although I live less than an hour from her now it used to require all day car rides to get to visit her.  We often made the trip two times a year. Usually we would go around Christmas and then again in the summer. Sticking with my summer theme at the moment (can you tell I want it to come?) I want to give you some of my memories from visiting her in the summer.  For some reason the couple of things that make me think summer in western PA are lightening bugs, porch swings, trains, and cooing doves.  I remember chasing lighting bugs in the back yard and every time I see them now I want to abandon whatever I am doing and chase after them.  Maybe that's why I like the song Fireflies by Owl City... hm...

Not to far down the road the railroad tracks crossed through town and whenever we'd hear the train whistle we would run out into the middle of the street and watch them pass through.  I love the fact that we could run out into the middle of the street! 

The cooing of doves is something I don't think we heard much of at home and I remember how when mom would send us to bed it was one of those nighttime sounds that helped me get to sleep.  When I hear them I think of lying in bed with my head under the shades looking out at the street because it was still light and I certainly wasn't tired!  My favorite night at Grandma's was one summer when my aunt and cousins came for a visit and they had brought fire crackers with them.  We threw poppers on the sidewalk to make them explode and had so much fun.  Later that evening as we were lying in bed trying to get to sleep, I heard voices of some people walking along the sidewalk and then a pop and a scream.  Oops....guess one of our poppers hadn't really exploded earlier!  

Another one of those fond childhood memories I have of Grandma's may not be the most pleasant...I always seemed to walk away from a visit with a scraped up knee!  I'm not sure why but I always seemed to, but I did and it makes good memories of summer at Grandma's house!

Some other time I will have to share winter memories of Grandma's house but for now I'd like to keep thinking warm thoughts so that maybe this nice warm weather will stick around!