Ah summer. As an adult, I am not a big fan of it — the heat, the congestion on the freeway as the exit to the beaches near, the depression of not fitting into a teeny tiny bikini. As a kid, though, it brought to mind some great memories.

If my summer memories as a kid had sponsors, they would be Hefty and Rubbermaid.

I grew up in a more lower middle-class neighborhood. I only knew of maybe 1-2 houses that had swimming pools. Actually, there was one house that was on a corner that we knew had a swimming pool. Sometimes we’d walk by the fence just to peek through and ooh and aah.

Although I couldn’t (and still don’t know how to) swim, I still needed some way to cool off. So, we had to figure out some other way to get wet with what we had. My best friend at the time, Sue, had something we didn’t — sprinklers. We’d get in our bathing suits (the funny thing is, Sue and I traded bathing suits because mine was too small and hers was too big — really gross now that I think about it, but I’m cootie free as far as I know) and run through the sprinklers. It was so much fun.

Something neither one of us had was a Slip N Slide. So, to compromise, we got a few Hefty trashbags, cut them open, spread them out and nailed them into the grass. It didn’t work too great, but it was fun trying.

When it was time to turn off the sprinklers (after all, we were in the midst of a drought in California), we headed from the front yard to the back yard. There we soaked in our “spa” — a Rubbermaid trashcan. Sue and I were small enough to fit into it, but two was definitely a crowd. So, we’d have to take turns soaking.

I kind of miss those days, the days when I could prance around in my bathing suit without having a care in the world about whether or not my thighs jiggled or my butt looked too big.

Lesson learned: What can be used for trash can be a child’s treasure.