29 Comments

1. Antonio Simoneli, June 21, 2011:

   I remember we’d get together with the neighborhood kids and find a roll of old plastic or something in one of our garages, and we’d make our own “slip-n-slides”! We’d have the longest slip-n-slide you ever saw, sometimes it would go across 3 lawns, and we’d get a run at it. We finally figured out a bottle of dish soap made it all the more slippery, and we’d just about flood the block playing in the water all weekend…

2. Dave, June 21, 2011:

   !4 years old, swimming in the neighbors pool for our daily game of Marco Polo. La Dolce Vita!

3. Maria, June 22, 2011:

   When we were little, we would set-up our slip and slide, and invite all the neighborhood kids over, or we we would turn on the sprinklers and run through them.

4. Rani, June 22, 2011:

   I remember a time when my friends and I would set up a mini car wash to make some extra summer cash…but we would end up having massive water fights with the hose and buckets and sponges!! great way to cool off and make some money! SALUTE~!

5. Jesse, June 22, 2011:

   Floating down the rivers of Texas in innertubes..don’t forget a tube for the cooler!

6. Rachel, June 22, 2011:

   We beat the heat of the East Bay summers, we head to Carmel and Big Sur to soak up the sun and ocean breeze! We’re planning our first trip of the season this weekend!

7. Brian, June 22, 2011:

   In high school, there was always an “Assassination” tournament every summer. Teams of four would be paired up against each other every week, which the objective of “assassinating” members of the opposite team. I remember having to look over my shoulder every time I went out in public, for fear of getting taken out, and always keeping a loaded water gun on my person or in my car for “protection!”

8. Susan, June 22, 2011:

   Back in NJ summers were hot and humid. One of my favorite ways too cool off when I was very young was to run through our lawn water sprinklers. Our dog Fifi taught me how to do this.

9. Judy, June 22, 2011:

   The neighbor kids would set up their garden hoses so that each had this “weapon” and it was a free-for-all. If only we could have figured a way to eliminate the smog.

10. Tom, June 22, 2011:

    Before any of us drove we would bike down to the Brickyards in Moonachie, NJ and swim in the pond. When we could drive it was off to the Jersey shore…

11. Teresa Sharp, June 22, 2011:

    In my younger years our most frequent cooling off method was running through the sprinkler in the front yard. We often finished the day with ice-cream milkshakes (often vanilla because that was my dad’s favorite). I found out later that the reason we had ice-cream so often was because it was delivered with the milk and could be bought ‘on account’ and paid for once a month. After age 10 I had a cousin with a swimming pool we visited as much as possible.

12. Shelley Claudel, June 22, 2011:

    We would put the “Slip and Slide” on the front lawn, and all the neighborhood kids would come over. Running and sliding through the water was a great way to cool off from the soughern California heat!

13. Brad Rieser, June 22, 2011:

    With almost 20 kids on our secluded street, we arranged to switch among 3 homes, playing Shark at one pool, Marco Polo at the next, and finished with Toothpick (one person dives deep and swims the length of the pool near the bottom, at some point releasing discreetly a regular toothpick to float to the surface) and all the others standing on the pool’s edge would compete to find the toothpick and try to jump in and grab it as it gets splashed around … super fun! Never wanted to stop…

14. Jlsilveria@yahoo.com, June 22, 2011:

    Pepe I have been a resident of carmel for 38years and have enjoyed all of your endeavors and frequent all of your locations my one complaint your morning pastries are never out in time for breakfast I usually come in after 9:30 to no avail. Just a suggestion you have wonderful product. Jim

15. Molly McCool, June 22, 2011:

    I grew up in California’s Central Valley which has hot, hot summers. There was always an orchard or field near by running its sprinklers. Just had to avoid the farmers who would chase you off their property.

16. Tyson Porter, June 23, 2011:

    We would go to Huntinton Lake up above Fresno and swim in the still cold Sierra water.

17. Kathy Craig, June 23, 2011:

    I am the youngest of four, and the only girl. My brothers and I took care of ourselves. On occasion we would walk to Mtn. View’s community center to go swimming. They had a giagantic swimming pool with two diving boards. One high, and one low. It was a great place to go cool off in the summer. I remember they gave out big Pins, they looked like baby diaper pins. You would get a mess bag to check in your things and they would hand you a big metal baby pin, ha ha! So much fun!!!

18. Joe Kaufmann, June 23, 2011:

    Growing up in Cliffside Park, NJ, the 2 greatest places to cool off where either the Jersey Shore or the pool at Palisades Amusement Park.

19. dan fausset, June 26, 2011:

    While growing up in Tekamah, Neb. we (my cousins & friends) spent all of our time at the town pool. Then when I went to see my cousins our at the farm, we went down to the “crick” (that’s a creek or stream for the more sophisticated)which was usually kind of muddy. Often times we had to dam it up so as to get enough water in one spot to be able to swim. Lots of fun!

20. Jerome, June 27, 2011:

    As a kid, in hot summers my parents would take me to the local community pool for swimming lessons. It was there that I first learned about sunblock. On a blistering day, I got blistered from standing in the shallow end too long. Beet red on the top part, lilly white on the bottom part, they called me “half-n-half” for the rest of the season. Bummer.

21. Betsy Conron, June 27, 2011:

    Take the motor boat way out into the middle of the Lake Tahoe with my sister and a few girlfriends. Wearing nothing but a life jacket, go water skiing and wave at the boats passing by. Return to our dock on the lake, eat mint chip ice cream sandwiches and laugh hysterically at our wild and reckless excursion! Now that’s the way to cool off on a hot summer day!

22. Mary Helen Corrado, June 27, 2011:

    Growing up in northern NJ, it was not convenient to go to the shore on a daily basis. We were so lucky to live right near Palisades Amusement Park. We had season passes to the “World’s Largest Salt Water Pool” and enjoyed every second of out time there! I learned to dive there, got my first bee sting and generally had a fantastic time. I am so lucky to have grown up there and to have that wonderful time.

23. Michelle, June 27, 2011:

    We used to use the super soakers, slip n slide, or “willy the water bug”! If I was feeling really devious, I’d just fill the bucket up with water and dump on my brother. hehe

    <img src="http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l4dcq52Ks11qb3mmfo1_400.jpg".

24. Helen, June 30, 2011:

    To cool off in the summer we would bring out the Slip ‘n Slide and set it up in the driveway. It was great fun until someone slid off the end of the slide. Ouch! When we were lucky we would head down to the neighbor’s house and play Marco Polo all afternoon in their pool!

25. Pete, July 19, 2011:

    I remember helping someone else cool off while a young man in my parent’s car traveling in our non airconditioned Ford Country Squire Stationwagon across the badlands of South Dakota in 1968. It was well over 100 degrees outside and my Dad was at the wheel keeping the speed at just about 60 so as not to overheat the engine. All our windows were down and we were putting ice cubes from a cooler into handkerchiefs and putting them on our head!

    On a long stretch of fairly deserted highway a Harley-Davidson rider and his girlfriend came up along side our car and waved. My mom got me to get some ice cubes from the cooler and pass them to the girl friend riding on the back of the bike. She had great fun putting them into his shirt and we all had a good laugh.

    Thanks for helping me remember that!

26. Kari, July 25, 2011:

    We did it all as kids as far as getting wet and keeping cool! Grew up with a large swimming pool, huge yard so ran in the sprinklers and played on the slip and slide! Also lived close to a water park so spent many summer days there as well. Now that I’ve grown up a little I tend to stay indoors with air conditioning and a cold drink to cool off in the hot summers.

27. Lynne, July 27, 2011:

    Growing up in the central valley, CA, our summers were hot and dry. As kids, we spent many hours in the wading pool, then played in the sprinklers. On occassion, water balloons did the trick! When we were a little older, everyone in town would head over to the public pool or out to the lake. Brings back memories….

28. Abby, August 12, 2011:

    I was a kid in New Mexico, and it was really HOT there! My family did go to a river beach to swim and cool off, but then my Dad stepped on a piece of glass. Uh-oh! From then on, it was a membership to a local pool with a view of the river, or sprinklers in the back yard. This summer in Carmel, it has been so foggy, I don’t even think of “cooling off”!

29. Brandon, February 11, 2012:

    Well living in Tennessee all my life keeping cool in the summer wasn’t a hard thing to do if you wanted to cool off you would head down to creek or we would go to the lake and ride inner tubes or go skiing wish now I like to stay in side on them hot summer days.