The Essential Summertime Trifecta

There are certain things about the summer months which I cherished as a child. Without these essential items, the sunny season didn’t seem as bright. The time off school simply wasn’t as satisfying. Simply put: without this eclectic triad of items, summer just wasn’t summer. 

 I left Manitoba in mid-August. There were still plenty of 25+ degree days to enjoy and beach trips to be had, but everyone was anticipating the first morning chill that harkens the return of the back-to-school season. By the end of the ninth month, it’s near impossible for any Manitoban not to being priming oneself for the disappointing reality that summer has ran its course for yet another year.

It has been decidedly different, then, for me to enter a country that is only now beginning its spring/summer season. I swapped magazine spreads and mall advertisements hawking plum-coloured lipsticks and cozy sweaters for ones championing mini-skirts and tank tops. Even my email spam is backwards, as I just today I opened a Victoria’s Secret newsletter trying to sell me the latest knit-wear instead of trendy swimwear.

September has always been the month defined by academia. The bright light at the end of the summer tunnel was always the prospect of back-to-school shopping sprees at the mall and the acquisition of fancy new school supplies. It’s tough to know why the stiffness of new blue jeans and the smell of shiny new pencil crayons elicited such joy, but it was a routine that never failed to deliver.

This September was the first one in the last 17 years of my life that I wasn’t sitting in a class room for the First Day of School. Facebook was lit up that week with status updates complaining (or celebrating) the beginning of another school year and I couldn’t help feeling left out. Adding to my fish-out-of-water status is that here in SA, September is mid-term season, meaning that finals and “summer break” are only a handful of weeks away.

So as my Northern home enters a kaleidoscope world of oranges, yellows, and reds, of white mornings and frosty nights, my new home begins a chapter of its own beauty. Of spring rains, fresh flowers, scorching sun, and warm evening breezes.

With the plethora of exciting people and places (and animals!) to see, summer in SA promises to be amazing. That I know for sure. However, I realize that all the new summer additions heading my way inevitably come at the expense of some Canadian staples that aren’t available here. Including:


 Kool-aid.

What kid doesn’t remember staining their upper lip with the stuff? Or asking Mom to be the one to choose the flavour of the day? Or dousing the batch with triple the recommended amount of sugar? Or cutting out the point squares from the packaging in order to collect enough to mail away for something as “necessary” as a sticker machine (okay... so maybe that was only ten-year old me?).

Whether you are 7 or 27 or 77, Kool-aid will always be the champion drink of summer.



 Kraft Dinner.

And if Kool-aid is the champion drink of the summer, then KD has to be the king of all supper options.

It is the answer to a yard full of starving children or a backyard full of drunken teens. It is there for you when you are feeling cheap, lazy, or both. It is hands-down the most sought after daycare lunch or 2am snack option. I would even argue that it reigns as the single most common item in the average family and university dorm room cupboard.

What would our society do without Kraft Dinner? Sure, we may be a few pounds lighter and a whole lot healthier, but really people, you just can’t replace the sort happiness that a steaming pot of cheesy, processed KD goodness provides.


 Popsicles.

 

Now this subtitle does not refer to rockets or creamsicles or something of the chocolate variety such as drumsticks and fudgsicles. Those you can find here quite easily. What I am talking about are the basic, from-the-1950s popsicles that come in a yellow box in the no-nonsense flavours of grape, orange, and pink.

These are my favourite cold year long summer treat. Hands down. I am confident I could eat a box in a single summer afternoon. No other popsicle quite compares to their simple taste of frozen artificial flavour.

I have yet to meet someone who hasn’t eaten one at some point in their lives. Most have a favourite flavour of the three that they root around the box for. And all have had that moment of panic when you get to the base of a twinpop and it breaks apart suddenly, dropping a rapidly-melting hunk directly onto your lap. I sorely miss my classic popsicles and if anyone manages to successfully mail some to me, you will have a friend for life.

In fact, mailing me any one of these three items would garner a hefty I.O.U in your favour. :)

And please let me know -- what are/were your summertime staples?