Finally we had a summer weekend.

A real old-fashioned summer weekend. It was warm and some might say it was hot. It was like the weekends we used to have when I was a young girl. The Fourth of July was always a big celebration in our family. It was time to get the family together and have a great cookout.

Well, this year we did get the family together. When my children were growing up they knew their cousins, they played together, had sleepovers and they were friends. They still maintain their cousin relationships. But in today’s lifestyle so many people live long distances away from their families and they have relatives that they don’t know. They all lead busy lives and don’t often have time to get together.

We overcame that this past weekend when cousins met cousins. They found that they have things in common more than they knew and they had more relatives than they thought. This was a chance for the good old-fashioned summer picnic. We made a weekend of it, three days of family, food and fun.

It started with, of course, picnic food. You remember when we ate hot dogs and didn’t know they were bad for us? Well, we had hot dogs with home grown onions, not those fancy brats. We had potato salad, baked beans, barbecued chicken and watermelon, good-old American food.

We had declared it a no electronics weekend and it was nice not to have beeps and chimes interrupting our conversations. Not having young ones with their heads bowed to their gadgets made it easy for conversations and getting to know each other.

Of course, since we live in Edwardsburg, water was a part of the weekend. The lake and the pool furnished good-healthy exercise. Maybe a few sore muscles from the jet skis. The only drawback was the need for sunscreen so we slathered every one with spray and bug repellent.

The weekend ended with a bonfire and s’mores. How much more American can you get?

Everyone declared it as one of the best weekends ever. Can we do it again? We hope so.

In the meantime, I hope you were making memories for your families or are planning an all-American weekend soon. Happy middle of the summer.

For all of those who commented on my lost remote, thank you for your suggestions. I did find the remote. The most helpful suggestion came from Gene Montgomery. He said that a button on the remote making a sound would tell you where the remote was located. Good idea.

Will someone work on that project? I think I need it.

 

Jo-Ann Boepple works at the Edwardsburg Area History Museum.