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SUMMER MEMORIES
Top 10 Things About My 1950’s and 60’s Childhood Summers in Minnesota
Days and nights I wouldn’t trade for anything — including the hard parts
I’ve been writing a lot lately about my home state of Minnesota. Since I’m on a roll, I’ve decided to keep it going. Writing about an important part of my life: my childhood summers in the 1950’s and 60’s.
Culturally, things were very different then, in some ways. And yet, compared to today, some things are still the same or close. We didn’t have electronic devices of course. Even television was in its early stages. According to the Digital Public Library of America, in 1955 half of American families had a television. Up from a few thousand homes in 1947. We did have one. And it was a big deal, but so were these things…
Swimming. My father was an excellent swimmer. And water skier. My mother never learned to swim. He grew up around lakes. Her family farmed. She, in particular, ensured that the seven of us kids became good swimmers. Every summer from young ages to our teen years, we took swimming lessons at the community pool. We spent lots of time at Minnesota lakes during the summers, so we gained more swimming experience there, as well as lots of water play and eventually water skiing. We also swam at local granite quarries in our teens. My sister Julie, who we lost 4 years ago, was a synchronized swimmer in high school and an impressive performer in the water with her team. I have come to appreciate that we had these opportunities. It meant outdoor fun, exercise, gaining life skills, and time really well spent with others.
Weather. We lived in two-story houses with second floor bedrooms which were built in the first half of the 20th century. With no air conditioning. Fans and open windows were the methods somewhat desperately applied to keep cool in the house during the mainly hot, humid summer months. It didn’t work well. Particularly when temps hovered around 90 degrees with high humidity and marginal cool-downs during the night. It was miserable. Tornado warnings are a common Minnesota weather phenomenon, that challenged me emotionally. More than once we huddled as a family in the basement until serious threats abated. I dreaded it and tornado weather…
