Do you have any special childhood memories from things you did in the summer? We rented a cabin for a week each summer in Ely, Mn and I’ll never forget the things we did there. They were really cute little cabins far off the beaten trail. There was no running water OR electricity. We swam, fished, saw bears and had campfires. I have super good memories of that.
Then for the rest of the summer we went to our grandparents in Woodmore, Manitoba. I can’t even begin to tell you the lessons I learned from one summer to the next. They were farmers and we learned to live an entirely different way of living than we lived in Mpls and I’d never wish to change any of that. The only disadvantage was I didn’t really ever get to socialize with friends over the summer. But, you can’t have it all and I’d never trade what we did.
This was the Good Question the other night. How many Minnesotans own cabins? Our kids do have “cabin” memories. Paul’s family owned a cabin not far from where we live now in Annandale, MN and we went every single weekend without fail from the time the frost was gone in the spring until it froze in the fall. We went to the Swappers Meet every Saturday morning and fished and swam and had bon fires and LOTS of laughs. I’m sure my kids will tell you story after story of fun childhood times. I sure do miss that cabin. We had a lot of fun and I wouldn’t trade any of those times either.
What did you do during the summer? Did you have any traditional things you did? Did you take trips or go to camp? What do you do now that you’re an adult? What memories would you like your child like to have of their summer fun?
Us Girls..Our Views 
When i was very young my parents had a cabin on Gull Lake up in Brainerd. I remember having to use a ‘out house’, playing croquet ,water skiiing on my dads shoulders and catching little fish with corn. lol
I have a lot of child hood memories from my grandparents house.
I didn’t have any grandparents with cabins or farms. We had very tight finances and my dad never had much vacation, so we did what we could. Mostly we kids just putzed around the city. We could walk to the zoo and some pools and parks, and along the way, we met many kids and hung out. We had a lot of fun and also got into a little mischief. We also visited some elderly people when we didn’t feel like being outdoors.
On three-day weekends, the family would go “primitive camping” most years. That was really fun for us kids. I don’t think my mom liked it very much, but she was a good sport about it. One year when my brother was in diapers, my mom insisted on renting a cabin (with running water). That was really nice. I remember that my egghead brother and I dissected a fish we caught that year. (Yes, we are weird.) We also met some kids whose parents didn’t believe in making girls wear shirts! Some years, instead of camping, we could afford to go to a nearby amusement park.
After we moved to a rural town when I was 12, my parents said there was no longer any need to go camping, because we could just walk down the road if we wanted to be “in the country.” Shortly thereafter, I started spending the whole summer working (babysitting, paper routes) and going to school.
Hi, we used to live in mn, brainerd, my husband is from there. We have home movies from when they were little. I will have to show him your blog.
We didn’t have a cabin, or go on any vacations. My summer consisted of hanging out friends, riding my bike and staying the weekends with my grandma and cousin (when I wasn’t grounded.) When I got to go to my grandma’s it was the best thing ever! My cousin and I(4 weeks younger than I) would ride our bikes ALL over Sacramento. Thinking back, I never would let Bailey do that. It was just as dangerous back then than it is now, maybe more now…but it wasn’t the safest thing we did! But boy did we have fun.
My older brother, and younger step brother were in baseball, so that took a lot of summer up. I spent a lot of time at the ball fields growing up. Great memories there!!!
During the winter, we would go up to northern CA, and play in the snow for the day. We didn’t do that until I was about 12. So yeah, I was 12 the first time I saw and touched snow.
Bailey spends a lot of time with his friends during the week. He’s always out on his bike, or at the ball field with friends. Swimming, just being a kid. That’s what summer is all about. Weekends are mostly for family time, but he does still see certain friends, or he may go to a movie.
I do miss having the cabin. When Jason, Sue, Toby and I were younger (18, 19) we had so much fun there! When the kids were really small we’d take them. I wish our kids had that, now. I was just talking with Johnny about this Saturday!!! So many great memories at that cabin. I’d have loved to have that growing up. I love traditions.
I’d give anything not to have sold that place.
I’m not doing a great job so far of building traditions with my kids. I want to, but summer is my busiest season at work. You can’t have your cake and eat it too, right? However, if we can travel to a hot place in the winter, that’s the same thing, right? 😛
Traditions don’t have to be big, shiny things. I have a special plate that we use for “special” things… Birthdays, obviously, but we also use it for silly things… FINALLY lost that tooth? Celebrate Plate! Passed Swim Test? Celebrate Plate. Josh had me use it the day I landed the interview (that has yet to pay off, but still), and for Mother’s Day.
I struggle, too, with making ‘big’ traditions for him. It’s especially hard when his extended family is so far away.
My family doesn’t own a cabin. My parents came close a couple of times, and I’m still ticked that they didn’t just bite the bullet and buy, because all three of us kids would use the heck out of it. But we always went up to Northern Wisconsin (near Hayward) for a week every summer. Mom and Dad have been doing it for more than 40 years, the same week every year. I’ve joined in on the tradition more than my brothers, although they’ve both taken their families up at different times, too. I would LOVE to have a couple of cabins right together, so we could all go up at the same time. I think that’d be a blast.
My parents were also members of the local pool through my entire childhood. It was privately owned, but open to the public, and my dad was on the board for years and years. Because of that, we had special privileges… the biggest perk is that we could go in during ‘closed’ hours. We’d regularly go to the 5 O’Clock Swim… the pool closed between 5-6 every evening, M-Sat, so we’d swim then. We didn’t have to follow the rules 😀 . I’d go down the slide face-first, cannonball off the boards, and swim around in the “well” (the really deep diving board pool). They would even bring their SCUBA gear or the Canoe for a “shake-down” or to teach me how to handle it in an emergency.
I went to camp a few times. They are really good memories. As a kid we traveled a fair amount I guess. I kind of remember being bored a lot during the summer. I love cabins I can imagine that you would have lots of wonderful family memories going to the cabin. There are a few summer cabins here. We may go camping more in the future that would be fun campfires, singing, swimming general good fun.