In the Good Old Summer Time

                 Dear Friends of the Good Old Days,

                 Ah, summertime.  When we were kids, those precious three months of escape from the routine of school days produced cherished memories like no other season.   George Evans and Ren Shields hit the nail on the head in their classic tune In the Good Old Summer Time when they penned that summer is "a time in each year that we always hold dear."

                 You may be most familiar with the chorus of their famous song, first heard in a musical comedy show in 1902.  Audiences immediately sang along with the lilting description of strolling through a shady lane "with your baby mine."

                 But I enjoy the more-detailed imagery of the second verse, not quite as well-known :

               

                 To swim in the pool,

                 You'd play "hooky" from school,

                 Good old summer time;

                 You'd play "ring-a-rosie"

                 Good old summer time.

                 Those days full of pleasure

                 We now fondly treasure,

                 When we never thought it a crime

                 To go stealing cherries,

                 With face brown as berries,

                 Good old summer time.

                 That verse perfectly sums up this article of  Good Old Days.  It's overflowing with stories of those days full of pleasure and the memories now fondly treasured.  You'll get to hear the splish-splash of a reader's first experience in a swimming pool, you'll taste the warm sweetness of berries freshly picked from the bushes, and you'll picture that fish caught on the end of a line tossed in a creek.  

                 So go ahead.  Pour yourself a tall glass of lemonade,  and meander out to a lawn chair in the sun somewhere to savor the Good Old Days in the good old summertime.