Summer 2023 is officially on in the UK, and I don’t mean school is out yet. That doesn’t happen until sometime at the end of July. No, I’m talking about the heat.

It. Has. Arrived.

This isn’t a post about how the heat hits differently over here due to the infrastructure, or how it’s more of a tropical heat with no real reprieve. I won’t even mention the lack of AC.

Actually, that one I will touch on, because Ted Lasso in the final episode of Ted Lasso said it best:

”…I’ve finally accepted that air conditioning is a privilege and not a right.”

As an American who grew up with AC, that quote is everything.

But I digress.

I won’t mention that this is exactly what scientists mean by global warming, because that’s not what this is about. This post is about the memories made with family.

I’m making plans for the summer holidays with the kiddo, and I’m thinking back to my summers when I was his age and older for inspiration. Most of my summers were spent with family, usually my maternal grandparents.

Now, I had more summers with my grammie simply because grandpa died before I really started my teen years, and grammie lived long enough to see me get married.

In the earliest years, summers were for vacation bible school because my grandparents were religious; the public swimming pool; trips to the library; and either bowling or going to a matinee at the cinema while grammie and grandpa played bingo.

Last night my husband and I introduced the kiddo to some Elvis music and I was struck of memories of those summers. Not the busy during-the-day stuff I listed above, but the slower days when it was too hot to go outside.

During the day I’d watch Viva Las Vegas, or Blue Hawaii with my grandpa. Occasionally the TV stations showed the Adam West Batman: The Movie from 1966. I liked those days.

Grammie would sew, and I’d listen the whirring of her machine. Grandpa might have dozed, or read one of the small handful of books he read on rotation while glancing up to watch the movie. It doesn’t seem like much, but I loved those quiet days.

Then at night, after they were in bed, I’d stay up and watch the edited-for-TV version of The Breakfast Club – which I sort of realised was edited for TV, but I loved it anyway.

These memories remind me that I don’t have to plan out every minute. There’s every chance that kiddo will remember big trips and days out, but there’s also the chance that the memories he cherishes the most are the ones that are so seemingly inconsequential at the time.

But if someone could do something about the temperatures outside, so I could do the big memories with the family and not get sick from the relentless heat, I’d be ever so grateful!