Summer Memories.
Summer Memories.
plus: a very bookish week, a review of Pocket Blush, easy everyday dresses, summer layers, and more!
hello from LA… I hope it was a good week :)
It’s been a nice trip. Gallery hopping at Bergamot Station, dinner at Le Great Outdoor, beach walks, sushi at Sasabune (our fav special spot), multiple trips to Erewhon (I can’t be helped), hopefully seeing the Frank Stella show at The Skirball today (fingers crossed, we didn’t make it last time). Tonight and tomorrow we’ll see my boyfriend’s youngest son perform in Grease.
Work-wise, my biggest focus has been preparing for Amazon Prime Day next week. I am thrilled to announce that based on a vote in the Facebook group, I will be donating 50% of my Day One earnings to Everytown.
I’ll have a big guide on the blog and a more edited roundup here. <3
before we dive in, A little sponsor thing!
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I’ve been thinking about summers past, specifically from my childhood and how different things were for my sisters and I, growing up in the eighties and nineties on Cape Cod, vs. today.
My parents owned and ran a restaurant. Summer was busy season. Our house was attached to the restaurant; they both worked around the clock. From Memorial Day until Labor Day, they were IN IT. My father ran the kitchen, my mother ran the front of the house. My father was up early to sign in deliveries. Working all day in the kitchen, getting things prepped. And then the actual cooking, late into the night until ten or eleven when the last entrees were sent out.
My mother multi-tasked like no other. I still don’t know how she did everything she did. I have a vivid memory of my her working in the garden, on her hands and knees weeding… with the restaurant’s cordless phone in one hand, taking reservations, managing customer service. There was no Resy or OpenTable back then!
I remember being a surly teenager, whining about the tourists, the traffic, waiting in long lines, etc. My father shut me right down. He told me to be grateful for the tourists. They were the people who paid our bills, kept the lights on the rest of the year when colder weather arrived and life slowed down again. For my parents, summer meant making enough money to support the business and our family for the rest of the year.
For us kids, summer meant freedom, fun, the beach, forts, running around the yard. My two sisters and I ran wild (at least wild, compared to the way kids grow up today). We had forts in the woods behind the restaurant where we planted bizarre little chive gardens (I still don’t know why there were so many wild chive plants growing in those woods!) and concocted weird little rituals to keep the witches away (we were big Roald Dahl fans and we were simultaneously terrified and convinced of the witches’ existence). I know my parents always had their eye on us but we FELT free.
I attended camp sometimes, just called “Rec.” I did not do so well with Rec. Even then, I was an indoor kid who hated sports and loved being clean. Camp felt like Lord of the Flies. We were outside the whole time. Hot, dirty, dusty, thirsty. The snacks were bad and I hated the kool-aid. It was all games and rough play (and very little crafts which is what I wanted). I would be in a full panic when it came time for Rover Red Rover (the other kids knew I’d let go so I was an easy target. My hands hurt just thinking about it!). I got picked on a lot. I begged my parents and thankfully they let me stay home. I was happier playing dress up, making things out of polymer clay, doing beads, reading, snuggling the cats (same as now TBH).
We went to the beach a lot. On my parents’ days off we’d pile into my dad’s old Bronco and drive onto the beach. My dad would fish, we’d play in the waves with my mom, make drip castles, eat sandy hummus sandwiches and fruit.
When I got a little older, we were allowed ride our bikes down the street. The local market, the ice cream shop, the sandwich shop… all were grand adventures. One summer, my best friend and I stumbled upon a condemned house. We could not believe our luck! It became our secret. I think back now and realize how dangerous it was! The entire center of the house was rotted out (there was a giant hole down the center of the house, as if it had been struck by lightening), the floors were unstable. We could have fallen to our deaths and no one would have known where to even look for us. Visits to the house were kiboshed when I brought dishes from its kitchen home as a “gift” for my mother. She asked where they came from and I came clean. She was not impressed. I did not understand why she’d be upset!
In some ways, today’s generation has it made. The things they do (the fancy summer camps, the extracurriculars) would sound positively glamorous to ten year old me. But also: the pressure! I’m (clearly) not a parent but kids and parents have so much pressure put on them, early on in the game. It all feels so exhausting to me.
When I think about it now, my sisters and I were actually the ones who had it made. It was a fully carefree childhood. Simple. Unfancy. Not a lot of pressure. The woods and the beach. Crafts inside. Friends down the road. Getting into (small amounts of) trouble. That sort of growing up experience doesn’t really exist anymore… at least in the places I’ve lived as an adult. It was safe and easy. While I probably (definitely) wasn’t grateful for it as a kid, I didn’t know any better. I’m grateful for it now. (And I still don’t know how my parents did it all. I should be thanking them daily).
On The Stripe this week:
We started the week with a rather detailed review of Rhode’s new Pocket Blushes. Spoiler alert: I really love these. The formula is super creamy and surprisingly very long wearing.
A roundup of easy summer layering pieces! Because I am always cold, even in the summer (I mean I mostly stay home and it’s air conditioned in here). Lightweight sweaters and button downs.. favorite things!
Everyday dresses. Easy breezy dresses for summer that (mostly) will not break the bank and will keep you looking cool, collected, and chic - even on the hottest days.
A super fun pool party inspired edit! It was fun putting this one together.
This Week in Reading:
I finished Breaking the Dark, by Lisa Jewell. I promised to report back and will tell you that I liked this but did not love it. I will read anything Lisa Jewell writes, I am a super fan. But this had a big supernatural twist and while it was fun to read, it just wasn’t my usual thing. Still - a mediocre Lisa Jewell book is better than most books!
Margot’s Got Money Troubles was just as good as everyone said it was. I had a real block on picking this one up (reading about a teenage mother who joins OnlyFans wasn’t really all that appealing) but so many friends and followers raved about it. I loved it. It’s warm and funny with a protagonist you really root for.
On audio, I am still listening to James, by Percival Everett. This is wonderful. It is a retelling of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of Jim. I was told to listen to it as the narrator gives a great performance and I’m so glad I did.
I had seen Made For You by Jenna Satterthwaite on several “most anticipated” lists and am glad I scooped it up. It’s a thriller. Think, Bachelor meets Annie Bot (so many bot books this summer?) with our protagonist being a bot that was created to be the perfect woman for The Bachelor. Until he disappears and she has to figure out what the heck happened to him. I read it in just a couple sittings.
Now I’m reading Sandwich, by Catherine Newman. This is about a family who rents the same Cape Cod beach house every summer. It came highly recommended by so many. I am enjoying it so far. The writing is great and it’s very funny at times but sad at others. Plus lots of Cape Cod nostalgia.
I’m 47 and feeling the perimenopause so maybe that is why your write up on memories made me tear up?
Bummed to hear no love of Sandwich … I LOVED We All Want Impossible Things - wondering if those who are not a fan of Sandwich read that?
Rest assured that this childhood experience still exists to some extent :) I think fancy summer camps is a wealthy person trope that winds up in all of our movies and stories and so, especially if you don't have kids, it's easy to believe that all kids are living that boujee life. In reality, my kids are keeping themselves busy with the other neighborhood kids over summer break because parents still have to work. And trust - the neighborhood is full of kids running around outside. Lots of bikes and scooters in the yards and sidewalks. One thing I do think has changed for sure is kids leaving the house and just being gone on their bikes all day. My kids are definitely outside in the yard playing, but I'm not letting them take off for the afternoon and not being in "yelling" distance. I remember my mom would let me and my friend take off to the NEXT FREAKING TOWN on our bikes. No cell phones, no way to reach out. We would just take off and come home at some point and she was totally unworried. If I call my kids name and don't see him in five seconds, I'll have a meltdown haha.