March in other countries, especially the ones with four seasons, marks the beginning of spring. In the Philippines, it is the beginning of summer and is a warning of hot months ahead and jampacked malls and summer clinics/classes.
I remember when I was in college, I really hated going to school during summer because it was really really HOT! Not only did it make learning uncomfortable but I really could not enjoy and appreciate all the lessons in the stifling classroom. I studied in a state university and well, it's not really first class so sometimes, the air conditioning would break down or an air conditioning unit was simply a fan in disguise (yup, the thermostat was broken) or the classroom we were in did not have an air conditioning unit at all. If you forgot to bring a fan to class, woe is you. But I really had fun with Zoology. I just love science so much!
I also remember when I was little, summer usually meant halo-halo stands everywhere. I grew up in a small city and for a time, we lived with my paternal grandparents. It was fun living with my cousins' families (there were 3 of us living with my grandparents, which is not unusual for Chinese families). During the summer, we would either buy halo-halo at the stores or make some for ourselves. Of course, making our own halo-halo was more fun. It was fun shaving the ice, adding all the sahog you could want, and drowning everything in evaporated milk and topping it with a spoon full of sugar. Sometimes, my cousins and I would ask someone to climb the coconut tree in the backyard for some yummy buko juice and meat. I liked mine with some milk and a bit of sugar. Really yummy. Other times, we would also get some green mangoes from the tree (also in the backyard) and eat it with soy sauce and come evening, we would have tummy aches. One summer though, we decided to be entrepreneurial and make our own ice candy. We decided to make 3 flavors: milk, choco (which was milo mixed with milk) and mongo (which was milk with like 10-12 pieces of mongo beans in it). At the end of the day we hardly had money earned because we usually just ate most of the ice candy. But we had loads of fun.
I can still remember so many memories of summer and I don't think I have enough time tonight to write them all but maybe I'll write a bit at a time while I can still remember and reminisce. Now that I am a mother, I want my boys to have their own summer memories. They may not be like mine, but I want them to be memories that will last them a lifetime.
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And your children will, Yette, because you are the kind of mom that will do whatever you can to provide the circumstances in which they can make fun memories, making the most of wherever you are. You've been doing this already...and have proof on your blog! I've heard of it before as 'blooming where you're planted'.
Your childhood memories sound much like my own. My cousins and I spent weeks every summer at my grandma's house, except that instead of coconuts and mango trees, there were plum, cherry, apple and pear. We would get tummy aches from eating green fruit, too, lol! And climbing around in the trees, and making forts in the Rhododendron bushes.
My grandma was an expert of making everything we ever did at her home a grand adventure, and the memories are still so vivid I can go back and remember standing over her stove stirring raspberries and strawberries from her garden into jam, or making applesauce or other preserves, or sterilizing jars and doing the steam baths after filling them with all the yummy things my grandma 'put up' every summer. Because we all helped her so much in this process, she sent home crates of stuff with us to use all school year long. It was just jam, but grandma's love spread out on our toast or pancakes in the mornings.
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