As Golden as the Sun

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Have you ever played along the canal banks…barefoot? Have you ever played tag with a mud ball? Have you ever spent a summer in the country where the only thing you had to worry about was how many days were left of your summer vacation?

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Do you remember a summer of wide open spaces, cousins galore, & running around in your swimsuit the entire day? A summer where you could run and play from the moment you woke up until the night sky waved you inside? Do you remember feasting on watermelon, corn on the cob with gobs of butter and your Va's homemade cookies?

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A summer where your heart healed because you relived the footsteps of your past, because you soaked up a life time of memories for tomorrow… because you simply stood on the land that made you who you are?

Have you ever felt summer hug you, telling you, "You're free, you're young, you're alive!" And you think it will never be better than this moment?

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 Oh Sacha, when you become a man will you your children have a summer like yours? Will you tell them how you and your cousins coated yourselves in mud and sat along the canal, in the 100 degree heat, proclaiming pure happiness?

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Sacha as summer comes to an end will you recall these moments until they become as golden as the sun?

….Of course you will! Now run along, tomorrow awaits you.

(Repost from Summer 2008, Sacha returns to France after spending summer in Willows.)



Comments

18 responses to “As Golden as the Sun”

  1. I had many summers like that Corey, and as I was such a serious kid I was very much aware of the fleeting of time and years, and I learned very early to hold on to those moments. I’m sure all parents hope their own kids will remember and cherish those days and that their kids, in turn, will be able to have days like this to embrace. I know you are thrilled to have Sacha home 🙂

  2. a beautiful peaceful tribute to your son, your family state side and to my favorite season of the year SUMMER-yes i recall summers as you describe different details -same emotional rendering–so beautiful-welcome back sacha safe travels!

  3. I do remember such summers of my youth. What wonderful memories Sacha will have to share with his children and to remember. You have given him a great gift. Not all children receive this gift, but it should be available to all children all over the world.

  4. thank you for the words that do bring back wonderful memories of summers visiting grandparents, aunts and uncles – all the cousins… the sixties, Modesto, the heat of the valley… the shade found under the peach trees, dirt road to the canal, watermelon … we were lucky to have a neighbor invite us daily to their swimming pool, that is where i first jumped from a diving board… i will have a smile pasted to my face all day with these wonderful memories. thank you!

  5. Lovely post. Lucky young man. (I can’t say “boy” anymore.)
    I know I had summers like that — yes. I did.

  6. Cousin Linda

    This brought a tear to my eye this morning. Makes it seem all the more important that the family farms stay in the family, to preserve that habitat for future generations. Can’t imagine anyone outside the family owning the “home ranch” or your parents’ place. Perhaps Sacha will find his place there one day — born on French soil, but destined for the California farmland. The Portuguese immigrant bloodlines run far and deep.

  7. i just like this entire sentiment~

  8. Robinelli

    Corey, that sounds like my summers in Willows with my wonderful Amarocucciacorrieasouza cousins. Other kids had Disneyland, we had Willows. This “city cousin” never got tired of it and I still love going, it feels like home.

  9. So very poetic, Corey. My summers were spent working my Grandparent’s truck farm, & picking berries for clothing money.When the morning chores were done, it was river time. We could see the mountain from where the river sprang and not much heating happened in the miles between. It is funny how cold water doesn’t affect you when you are young. Floating along on a truck tire inner tube. Evening chores and then falling asleep listening to the tree frogs. Bliss. Thanks for the memory jog.

  10. mundenliana@hotmail.com

    So wonderful! What a poet you are. These photos wanted me to plan a fun summer for my 4 grandsons who are yet very small with their cousins on the mainland. Rent a summer house on a lake or somewhere memorable where they are safe to romp and play. Dreaming!

  11. Thanks for reminding me of some forgotten moments. I needed that!
    Sacha and his cousins are very lucky kids, and even luckier because their family knows how those time will round him out and grow him /her into caring expressive adults.

  12. Beautiful essay, Corey, to savour again and again, just like those endless summers!
    Merci,
    Merisi

  13. beautifully, beautifully written…

  14. YOU have given him a true GIFT!How wonderful to have had the opportunity to go back and fourth and experience both cultures……….HE WILLNOT FORGET ANY OF IT!
    I think I have told you but maybe NO?We lived in Italy from 1991 to 1994,my husband Giampiero is a REAL ITALIAN!Summers there were spent at the campeggio at the sea.They were wonderful for the kids…free to roam with their bikes,activities at night, new friends,etc………I didnot really enjoy that much as we were living in a tent and I still had to shop and cook!BUT Looking back I do get how wonderful it all was.I would do again in a heart beat!

  15. Marie-Noëlle

    Great GREAT post !!!

  16. I hope his children have the same summers, children need such summers. Your two chicks are home, I bet mother hen is very happy.

  17. what a great story and photos. We are never as free and happy as we are in our youth, are we?
    I grew up like this too. Every summer we visited relatives and we played and ate and had a good time. I miss those days. Interestingly, these last few days I have been thinking about all the deceased relatives who shaped my earlier life. They were all so wonderful! Glad Sasha had these experiences.

  18. Had some of this when we’d spend summer vacation with my maternal grandparents in the Coast Redwoods wilderness. My grandmother would take me berry-picking early in the morning, then we’d make jelly with them on her wood-burning kitchen range (no electricity yet).
    I also fondly remember lying in the shaded back-porch hammock reading for several hours in the heat of the afternoon. There’d be piles of magazines that had accumulated since the previous visit — “Saturday Evening Post,” “Look,” “McCall’s,” “Ladies Home Journal,” “Colliers” — who even remembers most of those any more? As I reached junior high, my favorite was the issues of the SEP that serialized the latest Perry Mason novel by Erle Stanley Gardner!
    At home in the city, the weekly trek to the local branch of our public library was de rigueur, bringing home a new pile of books — some non-fiction (including biographies), some fiction (whether humor or mysteries).

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