How We Survived Summer (And Somehow Lived to Tell About It)

Remember when summer meant riding your bike until the streetlights came on, drinking from the water hose, and disappearing with your friends for hours without anyone tracking your location?

In this episode, we're taking a nostalgic trip back to the summers many of us grew up with and comparing them to what summer looks like for kids today. From homemade bike ramps and lightning bugs to sports camps and screen time, we explore how childhood has changed—and why every generation creates memories worth holding onto.

Plus, in this week's Dad Life Debrief, we talk about the temptation to compare our kids' childhood to our own and why maybe we shouldn't.

Whether you grew up in the '80s, '90s, or early 2000s—or you're raising kids today—this episode is a reminder that the best summers aren't about having more... they're about making memories.

In This Episode:

• The freedom of growing up before smartphones
• Drinking from the water hose (yes, really!)
• Why boredom made us more creative
• How summer has changed for today's kids
• Dad Life Debrief: Let your kids build their childhood
• Dad Lesson of the Week

Question of the Week:
What childhood summer memory will you never forget? I'd love to hear your story!

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow the podcast, leave a review, and share it with someone who remembers being home before the streetlights came on.

Stay Mostly You, Occasionally Wise.

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Until next time — stay mostly you, and occasionally wise.

Transcript

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Have you ever noticed that summer vacation used to feel like one long adventure? You'd leave the house after breakfast, disappear for hours, and somehow your parents just assumed you'd make it home before dark. We had no cell phones, no GPS, no group tech, just bikes, scrape knees, water hoses, and a whole lot of freedom. This week we're looking back at the summers we survived and comparing them to the summers our kids are growing up with today. So stick around. And whether you're listening on your drive to work, mowing the lawn, sitting on the porch with a cup of coffee, or just hiding in the garage for five minutes apiece, I appreciate you spending a little time with me. Today we're talking about something that every generation has an opinion on summer vacation. Now, I'm not talking about vacations where you book you know flights months in advance. I'm talking about the kind of summers where every day felt like an adventure and somehow your parents trusted that you survived until dinner time. Now, before anyone starts, you know, thinking this is going to be one of those kids these days conversation, I'm just going to stop you right there. It's not. Every generation has a different childhood. Our parents thought we had it easy. We'll probably think our kids have it easy, and one day our grandkids will think that our kids have it easy. And that's just how life works. So today, it honestly isn't about deciding who had it better. It's about remembering what made our summers unforgettable. But before we get into today's topic, it's time for Dad Life Debrief. So if you're new to the show, Dad Life Debrief is an opportunity for you as a listener to join me outside of the radio airwaves as a dad, husband, family man, chaos coordinator, everything in between. And this week, a couple of things occurred. So recently, my daughter got herself an apartment. She's living on her own. I couldn't be more proud of her. And she wanted her younger brother to come over, the 13-year-old. She's not ready for the four-year-old. She has thrown out the idea of doing it overnight, but that's about it as far as the four-year-old goes. She wanted to spend a couple of days with the 13-year-old. And that that melted my heart. Because I will be honest, when we first adopted our two boys, the 13-year-old and the four-year-old, there was I was worried that there was going to be some struggles there, but there hasn't been. She treats them like they have been her brother since birth. And it's an incredible feeling. Now, of course, when they went over there, they stayed up way too late. They had a lot of drunk food. You know, my daughter ended up adopting a cat named Igloo. Welcome to the family, Igloo. But it's just, it just makes me feel good to know that my daughter has truly stepped up as a big sister and welcomed the boys in as if, you know, they have always been there, you know, her whole life. It's just, it's incredible to see. Because I know there are some families that struggle in that department, especially with siblings, but that hasn't been the case. So if you're listening, sweetheart, I appreciate you being an amazing big sister. Second of all, I have learned this week to never trust my four-year-old with a tube of toothpaste. And let me explain. So my son has been brushing his teeth on his own. He loved playing with the toothpaste. He's got a gravedigger toothbrush that vibrates and makes it seem like it's cleaning. So he plays a lot of times with his toothpaste and toothbrush, and we have to correct him after a while. And there are times that I have to help him because as much as he plays with the toothpaste, it tends to cake up around the opening of the toothpaste tube. So a couple of days ago, he was yelling for me to come to the bathroom. And of course, I was sitting on the couch with my wife, and we were enjoying the time together, and the bathroom's literally like 30 feet away, but I was comfortable on the couch. So I was like, Why don't you come to me? And he explained what was going on, and I was like, hey, bud, just come in here, I'll help you put it on your tooth, you know, your toothbrush. And of course he was like, Okay, but it's gonna be a big mess. And I didn't think anything of that phrase. And so he comes in there with his you know gravedigger toothbrush and his you know toothpaste and hands them to me. He starts to slowly back up, and I notice this, but I don't think anything of it. And so I get the toothbrush and I'm starting to squeeze the toothpaste, and as I squeeze, water shoots out of the toothpaste tube and gets all over me. It gets in my drink that I have next to me. He falls to the floor laughing, laughing so hard. I mean, it's just it's a joyful belly laugh. And my wife has lost it, she is laughing, I'm giggling, and at the same time, I'm like, man, I'm gonna be super sticky because of this toothpaste. But I'm also thinking this is genius, especially for a four-year-old to come up with this idea. Now, granted, it may have been something he saw on YouTube, but for him to pull it off with such believability, it was it was incredible. And he has become our prankster. He is pulling off little pranks here and there, and he does it with such, I don't know what the word is, he's so flawless at it. Like you believe him 100% of the time, and you would think we'd learn by now, but I think it's because we're just so busy, and it's starting to become the busier time of year for us with soccer starting, t-ball, you know, ninja classes and things like that. You just don't think twice about it, it's just become routine, especially with the toothpaste and the toothbrush, you know. But he got me. It was it was great, it was incredible. It's a moment I'll never forget. I know it's a moment he'll never forget. So, lesson of the week for me as a dad is to never trust a kid with a tuba toothpaste, like ever. Now, let's get on with the show. Let's talk about one thing that defined our summers. One word, honestly, and that word is freedom. You know, the last day of school had come and gone. You've already talked with your friends, which you, you know, about what you were going to do that night, and the whole summer. You had it all planned out, you and your friends did. You know, you walk through the front door of your home, you drop your backpack somewhere, you probably wouldn't find it until August. You grabbed your bike and you disappeared. There wasn't a phone in your pocket, your parents couldn't check your your location via Life 360 or whatever app. Nobody expected you to answer a text. You just went. Now, you know, most of us got one instruction before we left: be home before dinner, be home before it gets dark, or or be home before the street lights come on. And that was it. No hourly check-ins, no GPS, just trust. And looking back, I'm amazed our parents weren't completely stressed out. Then again, you know, maybe they were, and they just hit it better than we do now. So once we got outside, there wasn't much waiting for us, which meant we had to make our own fun. And this brings me to my next point. Entertainment was whatever we could imagine. Think about it. There there wasn't any YouTube, there was no Netflix, no endless scrolling. If someone said I'm bored, your friend didn't hand you a screen. They handed you a baseball glove, a football, or or a bike. I mean, we built forts, we we caught lightning bugs, we played basketball until dark. We we made bike ramps that would make today's safety inspectors quit on the spot. Half the time we spent longer deciding what to do than actually doing it. And somehow those became the days we remember the most. I mean, there's something to be said for imagination. Today's kids have endless entertainment, and we had endless opportunities to invent it. I want to go back to the bike ramp, and I chuckled a little bit because there's one story that really stands out. My brother and I, we did this a lot. Uh, we we we lived out in the country, so safety was not a concern for us, and we would grab cement blocks and a piece of plywood, create ramps, go at high rates of speed just to see who would go the furthest. And we had a kid that lived down the road, Timothy. I'll never forget it. And he was my brother's best friend, and he was hanging out with us one afternoon, and we were jumping off the bicycle ramp. And my brother and I, you know, we were pros at it. And Timothy was a little more skittish. And so we were like, hey, you get a good amount of speed, you'll jump pretty high. And he was con he was concerned because to him the ramp wasn't, you know, the ramp was too high, and to us it wasn't high enough. So we're like, hey, we really this is his first time jumping on this ramp. We really want to make it an experience for him. So we added like two or three more cinder blocks, and this ramp, mm-mm, no way. There was no way we should have done this, and we didn't have bicycle helmets, so it was just if you fell, you you kind of sat there a minute and made sure nothing was broken, and you get back up and do it again. But we told Timothy after creating this monstrosity of a bike ramp, hey, you hit this at the right speed, you're gonna go flying further than you know, my brother and I have ever flown. And we got him pumped. I mean, we were pumped ourselves, we were looking forward to doing it. And so we had a driveway that was a circle because we lived in a trailer park, and so we we walked back and we told him to start at a certain point to where he would get enough speed and he would clear this ramp. And of course, my brother and I booked it back to the ramp because we wanted to see this, we were ready for this magic that was about to occur. And Timothy's coming over the hill, going down the driveway, and he's he he's got some speed, he's fixing to create some magic. It was going to be an ET moment without flying over, you know, trees and you know, in front of the moon. But he gets to the lamp, he gets to the ramp, and I'll never forget this kid's face. Fear sets in. And what does he do? He decides to stop right at the edge of the ramp. Of course, when that happens, his momentum pushes him forward and he faceplants onto the ground on the other side of this ramp. And my brother and I start laughing. Because back then we didn't check to see if you were okay, we were just you lost it immediately. And Timothy rolls over and he has got like grass, all grass and mud all in his teeth. He's crying, and we stopped laughing immediately. We're like, oh no, this isn't good. And he gets on his bike and goes down the road, and we never see Timothy again. And to this day, my brother and I, it uh it was a story we'll never forget. And now it's funny because my my 13-year-old rides his bike a lot. He's already broken his nose once from doing something crazy, going down a flight of stairs. But he has mentioned him creating a ramp, and I get nervous when he does it. You know, my anxiety gets a little high because I truly know the dangers of creating a makeshift ramp and everything that could go wrong, and I don't want him to have to go through that because I'm gonna be honest, kids today aren't as tough as we were back then. And it's not necessarily anyone's fault, it's just obviously the times have changed. But yeah, that's just whenever I think of bike ramps, that's just a magical story that just pops up. So if you've ever done it, I'm sure you've had a good laugh. I'm sure something like that's happened, you know, to you or to your friends, of course, but oh, the memories. So let's settle a little debate. You know, with running around outside, you would get thirsty, and that usually led to one thing. We drank from a water hose. It wasn't cold. It usually tasted like rubber, maybe a little dirt, you know. Nothing wrong with a little seasoning with your your you know, your your water hose water. And sometimes the first few seconds when you after you turned it on was hot enough to make coffee, but it didn't matter because you were thirsty and you drank it. You know, nobody carried reusable water bottles, nobody asked if it was filtered, you just took a drink and kept playing. And looking back, it's honestly kind of funny how normal that felt. Because now if I catch my kids doing it, I'm like, no, don't, because there's all sorts of diseases that they can get from that kind of stuff, or bacteria, or whatever. And of course, when I was a kid, I didn't think about that kind of stuff. I was thirsty, you know. I needed something to drink so I could go jump off this make, you know, makeshift ramp or laugh at somebody that was out at the last second. And and you know, it's like I said, it's just funny how normal that felt to us back then. But now, as parents, we're just like, no, dude, do not put your mouth on the water hose because I know the dangers of it. But, you know, it with it with as normal as that felt, there was another thing that changed along the way as us growing up, and that was honestly summer itself. Summer for us was simpler, but for kids today, they have camps, they have you know, sports, music lessons, vacation schedules, travel teams, and honestly, those are all wonderful opportunities. But for us as kids, our summers looked a whole lot different. Monday, we were outside. Tuesday, outside. Wednesday, we'd find your friends, and then we'd play outside. Thursday, ride bikes, jump off ramps, create chaos. Friday, do it all over again. The the calendar wasn't full. You know, our days were you know, just full of green grass and opportunities. And now all that freedom also meant that we had to make some decisions that probably weren't our brightest. And this kind of leads into my next segment. You know, with all this irresponsibility and poor decision making, we survived. You know, like I said, we we survived a homemade bike ramp, you know, riding in the back of pickup trucks, walking miles, you know, to the convenience store with three bucks just to get, you know, a soda and some candy. Of course, everything was a lot cheaper back then. We were exploring woods that we honestly had no business exploring, climbing trees that looked a whole lot shorter from the ground, playing football without helmets, and and and and looking back, it's amazing how we survived some of the things we thought were completely normal. And although let's be honest, our parents probably still don't know half the stories of the things we've done, and honestly, maybe they never should. Riding in the back of pickup trucks. I have talked in the past how I didn't have the greatest relationship with my dad, and there were very few happy moments. Riding in the back of pickup trucks was one of them. He had an 88 Silverado, and he had worked on the engine, and this thing was fast, and I was supposed to get it when I turned 16, but there were some major mechanical issues, and he ended up having to scrap it. But I remember going down back, you know, old country back roads, and my dad would stop, and he'd be like, all right, get in the back. And of course, my brother and I, without any hesitation, would jump in the back, and he'd tell us to put our butt in the seat, you know, in the in the you know, the the cab of the the truck in the back of the truck, because he was about to gun it, and we were gonna go a high rate of speed, and we didn't care. And when he did it, we would laugh, we would scream, you know, sometimes we get smacked in the head, you know, by Bumblebee. It's just talking about this and doing this episode has just stirred up so many memories, so many amazing memories, and that was one of them. I will never forget, you know, riding in the back of the truck with you know my dad driving. And and and back then, cops, you know, yeah, if you were unsafe, cops would say something, but cops don't, you know, back then didn't really care because they were doing the same things with their kids, or they were the ones riding in the back of the truck. Nowadays you wouldn't make it far down the road without a cop pulling you over or some nosy neighbor calling and saying, you know, how completely unsafe this is. It's just like we we have as a society become so uptight with things. And and I talk with my wife a lot. I there are a lot of times with all the the stories and all the videos and social media and things, people just need to learn to relax and take a chill pill, drink from the water hose. It's like we're just so wound up, and it's it's sad because I'm part of that. While I have learned to loosen the leash on my kid, I sometimes struggle with letting them do the things I did as a kid because it was unsafe. But it's just society as a whole nowadays just frown a lot of things that they didn't frown upon when we were younger. And with that said, you know, here's what I've realized. Every generation believes that they've had the best summers. And and and maybe they're all right. Because the best summer isn't measured by what you had, it's it's measured by the memories you've made. Bike rides, the smell of fresh cut grass, lightning bugs, water hose drinks, you know, racing home because a street light came on and your parents were fixing to start yelling for you. And, you know, I'm grateful my kids are making memories that belong to them because, you know, one day they'll tell stories about their childhood and they'll smile, you know, just as much as I did today, and just as much as you have, just thinking and remembering about our amazing summer vacations growing up. And to be honest with you, that's what that's what really matters. Before we wrap up, I'd love to hear from you. What's what's one memory from your childhood summers that you'll never forget? Was it riding bikes? Was it camping? Was it swimming? Was it building forts, or maybe drinking from the water hose? You can answer this question or just give us stories about your summer over at the Facebook page, Mostly Me Occasionally Why, or send me an email at mostlymecontact at gmail.com. I'd love to hear some of your stories, and who knows, they may be on future episodes. So until next time, never trust a four-year-old with a tube-a-tooth paste, and stay mostly you occasionally why.