Not sure if everyone can identify with these or not as some things are simply are culturally or hemispherically dependent /translation: it depends where you from and where your people from 
But I’d like to share a list of some of my summer memories.
- icees- $0.25, $0.15, $0.10 made by the lady in the neighborhood who ran a little store out of the house (she happened to be my mom so I was the icee maker as well as the cashier)
- The Puerto-Rican Festival (now politically correctly known as Latin American Pride? ) a mainstay in mostly northeastern states but Jersey and New York do it big! Our was a week long festival that was on my birthday week, began with a little miss puerto rico pageant and parade and ended in racial motivated fights on the last day- such a waste but :( unfortunate and true.
- Going to the Jersey shore. Wildwood NOT Atlantic City. Only people who didn’t live in Jersey go to AC true Jerseans went to Wildwood
- Blueberries! Hammonton, NJ is the WORLD’s largest supplier of antioxidant rich blueberries! Little known fact about the garden state!
- COWTOWN- can’t describe you must google it for yourselves
- Philly on the weekend
- Floor fans in the window (before everyone got those little window sized fans ) y’all know what I’m talkin about here, don’t act too cute it’s summer time
- Eating watermelon on the front porch with newspaper underneath you
- Eating crabs on the front porch with newpaper underneath you
- Not being able to eat watermelon or crabs in the house because they were too messy
- Flies chasing you while you are eating watermelon and crabs on the front porch
- Citronella candles that DO NOT work!
- Sweating and attracting more mosquitoes while sitting too close to citronella candles that DO NOT work!
- Avon monopolizing and jacking the price of skin-so-soft products up once they realized everyone was using it instead of OFF!
- Radios in the window
- Loud music from the cars that ride by (with the booming system) sorry couldn’t resist that one.
- Last day of school
- Back to school outfit
- New book bags
- Getting the bus/school assignment in the mail addressed: “To the parents of”
- Seeing teachers in the mall/grocery store/movie theater/library and being shocked that they have on casual clothes (now I am the teacher kids get excited to see outside …I now understand that distant look in the teacher’s eyes
- Staying up to watch the dawn of a new day all summer long.
The Garden State
Comment, Share, Enjoy! Gotta go so I can catch the sun.
Commit to a lifetime of learning!
Teacher~Tamara
© 2009 Teacher~Tamara ™. All rights reserved.
I LOVE JERSEY!!! Anybody guess what state T~T’s from?
teachertamara
I can definitely relate to the watermelon and icee or snowball on the corner house, where everybody wanted to hangout at.
Thank you for those summer memories . I’m from Baltimore,MD
I haven’t been home for 2yrs. The last visit was a sad but good one my father passed away. yes couldn’t wait for the first day of school to show off our new shoes and outfit; even if it was an old Islamic outfit they have never seen it before ,ha!ha!ha!
Salam Sister Martha,
How did you know our house was the corner house!! LOL Somethings just are universal I guess. Maybe its an East Coast thing? (Anyone from the West Coast with some insight on this?)
Sorry for the loss of your father I can relate as my father passed away 2 years ago too, but if I close my eyese it seems like yesterday though. Allah gives and He takes away and to Him we all will return.
As far as the “old islamic outfit they had never seen before” I STILL try to get away with that one! It makes it easier if you move around the country/globe and don’t get caught in pictures lol
sharing a little tip. If you wear black its even easier to get away with it!
Thanks for popping by sis! Have a great Ramadan!
T~T