I do not know why, there's no songs about "summer" that I can think of, but music from The Pretenders makes me feel like a long ago middle-school summer. The kinda coconutty smell of Hawaiian Tropics tanning lotion. Messy messy fruits that we always ate outdoors: big awesome juicy peaches, popping cherries straight from grandma's tree to our mouths, SEED watermelons (I purposely seek those out and refuse to buy seedless unless just desperate). I have visions of being in grandma's backyard with the other 8 grandchildren, running around playing kickball, cupball (baseball with your hand and a couple papercups scrunched together, so we didn't knock out a window or damage a car), boys against girls ANYTHING, grandpa making the best bbq chicken I've ever tasted, grandma's homemade peach ice cream and trying to sneak in to steal a finger scoop before it was ready, sprinkler play, laying in one of those tiny plastic kiddie pools with cousins and eating watermelon right off the rind in big long slices, right there in the pool, road trips, and Gulf Shores / Pensacola beach and the smell that wakes you up from the trip about 10 minutes before you get a glimpse of the water...mom would drive with the windows down and we'd nap.....and then the salty air would wake us up squealing with delight. Magnolia trees and books also come to mind when I think of summer. Fireworks! 4th of July was a big party at grandma's house, and lots of fun to be had as my favorite uncle dazzled us with a show. Those big family get togethers are long gone now, many died and others divorced and faded away after Grandma died---she's kinda what held the whole family together. Now it's just the 4 of us, with a VERY occasional event once a year if we're lucky where we can add my brother's family and maybe my mom to the mix. But those days were pretty grand....wonderful summers!