This is my entry into Crazedparent's 10-minute writers challenge.
My dad was in the Army when I was growing up. It was really cool travelling and moving and living all sorts of places. However, since we were on the move every 2-4 years, we did not really grow up with a "Hometown."
My Dad grew up in Holland, Michigan on the shore of Lake Michigan. A beautiful little town with a Dutch heritage full of tulips in the spring, a nice college (my alma mater), and a beach. A really nice beach. Since my Gramma lived there, we would often go spend our summer vacations, in between moves, in Holland. Both my dad's brother's have (or had) cottages on the lake, so it made a nice vacation spot for us.
I remember getting up and putting our swim suits on before breakfast, staying in them all day while we played in the sand and swam in the lake and not taking them off until bedtime. I remember my aunt always had cold cuts for lunch and we would go up at lunch time, make a sandwich (usually I'm sure we were forced to come up, knowing kids and summer play), then go back until dinner. Sometimes, we would take our baths in the lake -- bring our shampoo and soap down to the water. Nothing like washing your hair in lake water!
And on some nights, we'd get in our PJ's and go out for ice cream before bed. But always, we would watch the sunsetting over Lake Michigan. It just seemed the proper thing to do. When I went to Hope, we would often go out to the lake and watch the sunsets over Lake Michigan. It always brought me back to my childhood and the summers we spent out there.
When Josh was 2, I brought him to Holland for a mini-family reunion with my Dad's brothers and their families. It was great to see my cousins and their spouses and children. We don't often get together and see each other so it was great to share some of my childhood with my son. Rich couldn't go (he was working) and Sam wasn't born yet. I hope one day to bring my whole family back to Holland and the beaches out there because it's so beautiful.
Perhaps my summers on Lake Michigan have fed my love for the beach.....
My time is up! The basic idea is to write for 10 minutes on a given subject, keep your fingers moving for the 10 minutes and not edit. So, that explains some of the choppiness! I am, however, now going to spellcheck! Hope it's not against the rules!!! This was fun - thanks Crazedparent!
What fun times you must have had. As an Air Force brat, we were always making it to Massachusetts for the summers, where both my parents grew up. (Except when we lived in Hawaii.) It sounds like Holland gave you that sense of home, too.
ReplyDeleteYou wrote that in ten minutes with no stopping or editing? It's perfect!
ReplyDeleteAhhh, Holland, ahhhh Lake Michigan. There is NOTHING like it.