Under the shade of the old oak tree

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There's not a lot better in August than hanging out in the shade.

We grew up in a house with two big, beautiful trees in the front yard—a maple and an oak. In the fall, when we had to rake, I cursed their deep roots, sturdy limbs and plentiful leaves. But in the summer, their canopies combined to shade almost every inch of our yard, and I adored them.

In this August 1979 photo, Phil and I are under the shade of those trees, on an Indian blanket, playing a game of UNO. We actually spent a lot of quality time on that blanket, under those trees. We ate picnic lunches Mom made for us, drew, read books out loud to each other, played games and talked each other’s ears off.

I particularly remember Phil forcing me to slog through the entire 222 pages with him of Me & The Spitter: An Autobiographical Confession by Gaylord Perry. It was the Cleveland Indians pitcher’s account of how he cheated, doctoring baseballs with spit and Vaseline. It was truly thrilling.

What I also love about this photo are details like how each of us is wearing a matching tank-top-and-shorts set. And how tan we are. And our cute little haircuts. You get the idea: I think we’re darling! So, here’s to late summer and hanging out under a tree with your bestie!

I used Creative Scrappers sketch #222 for inspiration and Pebbles and Simple Stories patterned papers to pull this layout together.