Think Out Loud [13] Summer

I spent my summers in Iowa with my grandma. Since I was a little girl June through August meant Soft serve ice creamPerfect old lady hugsFried Chicken and potatoes An ancient green rotary telephoneMy Aunt Dodie's sweetheart dog Meandering rock roads and broken down barnsEmpty pop cans in ditches we had to run out and grabHeated games of Pitch and CribbageBad TV reception and only one channel...Days of Our Lives, the Waltons, Wimbledon Pool hoursSunburnsBlack clouds and awesome thunder stormsNo off switch to a beloved police scannerPorch swingsMy first kissMy first heartbreakRolling hills and deer signsGlossy corn and soy bean fields John Deer tractorsMatted down hat hairCute farm boys who heard I was a "good girl"The best hugs. My grandma as hard as she was because she deserved to be hard with her dad dying of the Spanish Flu when she was just a girl, then her husband walking down the basement stairs and ending it all with those mint green walls surrounding him, my grandma wasn't a sweet lady. But she always had mini-marshmallows and potato chips in her cupboards. She smelled like Halls cough drops. She was small and soft and never seemed to sleep. She refused to tell me stories about my grandpa, but she taught me to cook and sass and give the perfect stink eye. She survived my asshole phase called Fourteen Year Old Girl. I miss her like crazy. I'm going back there without her open arms to greet me. Without her small footsteps I always followed no matter how "grown up" I got. My first trip back there without her. I'll visit her stone, my grandpa's and Aunt Dodie's too. I'll listen to the wind. Tell my boys to knock it off. Gracefully take the tissue my mom knowingly hands me. I'll cry. Maybe drive by the pool and ice cream shop. I think the peonies will be blooming. She always had a thing to say about pretty flowers.
Think Out Loud is one cool meme. Share whatever you like. There are no rules, no theme, just you and what's on your mind. I'll be taking a break from posting until the end of June. I'll still stop by for a visit and comment here and there and you can always reach me by leaving a comment or emailing me. Happy June for all of us!!