I remember nana's dark damp basement full of do not touch items that we explored for hours.
Rusty tools, a bar, stacks of fabrics, used doors, magazines and old refrigerators.
A circular clothespin line to hang on and make into a fort.
Mercurochrome painted on every cut or scrape of my knees.
Fireflies and empty jelly jars.
Smells of grease and fried pierogies.
Long sunny hot humid days at the pool and the neighborhood.
Scraping for change for the snack machine and getting sugared candy cherries.
Taking my banana seated butterfly bike to both ends of Valleybrook.
Playing who sunk my battleship with my sister Christine who I swear cheated but I kept playing
with her as we needed two players and my youngest sister Amy was busy lining up her stuffed animals to either yell or have tea with them.
I remember days getting shorter and the nights cooler.
And little by little summer would be over.