Old School Summer: What We Lost & How to Get It Back

When did summer stop feeling like summer? I’ve been trying to put my finger on what an old-fashioned summer actually had that today’s summers often don’t — and I think I’ve figured it out.

When I was a kid growing up in the 80s, we lived in a rural community in west-central Georgia, I spent my summers playing outside, riding my bike down our long dirt road, and exploring the woods – usually by myself. I loved to read books, and I would climb up in one of the three tree houses my dad built, and I would spend hours reading.

We’d also spend afternoons at a church member’s swimming pool. My mom would sit by the pool while my brother and I (along with other church kids) would swim all afternoon and wear ourselves out. I remember loving the big bag of Cheetos we’d eat as a snack. It wasn’t fancy but it was fun and that was all that mattered.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what an old-fashioned summer actually felt like — and why the ones parents are handing their children nowadays feel so different. Somewhere along the way, we traded slow mornings and long, simple afternoons for day camps and digital screens and a calendar that never slows down.

So what exactly did we lose? And is it too late to get any of it back?

What summer used to be

When my kids were growing up, we often spent our days at the pool, having picnics, hiking, or just being home. Half of summer was spent doing absolutely nothing, and I mean that as a good thing.

There was Vacation Bible School and the garden hose and popsicles that dripped down to your elbow before you could finish them. There was boredom, too — long, itchy stretches of it — and looking back, I think that boredom was doing something good in us that we didn’t have the sense to appreciate at the time. It didn’t bother me if my kids were bored. I’d tell them to go play outside or read a book.

And the thing is, we had time. That’s the thing I keep circling back to. We had so much time, and no one felt the need to fill every hour of it. Life was full, but it was slower too.

What we lost

I don’t say any of this to shame any mama who’s got her kids in swim lessons and vacation camp. Modern life is real, and I’m not asking anyone to move to a cabin and churn butter. It’s okay to enjoy modern things and conveniences. I took swimming lessons as a kid, and I’m glad I did! But I do think we lose something special when we fill every moment with rushing to and from activities.

Time is the one thing you can’t get back, so whatever you do, however you decide to spend your time, remember how valuable time really is. Summer used to be the season that made you exhale, and now for a lot of families, it’s the busiest, most expensive, most scheduled stretch of the whole year.

We lost the boredom that turns into imagination. When there’s always a screen to reach for, a child never gets to that beautiful, restless place where they finally go build something in the backyard. We lost the front porch. We lost the long supper that stretched into dark. We lost the ordinary, unremarkable togetherness of just being in the same place with no agenda pulling anyone away.

And if I’m honest, I think grown women lost something too. We forgot how to sit still. We started treating rest like a reward we have to earn instead of a rhythm we were built for.

Scripture doesn’t tiptoe around this. “Come away by yourselves to a quiet place, and rest a while.” (Mark 6:31) Even Jesus told the people He loved most to stop and be still. If He built rest into the very fabric of a good life, I don’t think we were ever meant to move the way we’re moving now.

Old School Summers and How to Get It Back

Here’s the good news, and it’s better news than you’d think: you don’t have to overhaul your whole life to reclaim an old-fashioned summer. You just have to protect a little of it on purpose.

A few things that made the biggest difference in my own home:

Let them be bored. Resist the urge to fix it. Boredom is the doorway to imagination, and your children will walk through it if you give them long enough.
Put the phone in a drawer. Not forever. Just for an afternoon. See what happens to the quality of the hours when the thing that fragments them isn’t in your hand. My goal is to not be on my phone when I’m with other people – family, friends, or strangers.
Reclaim the front porch or the backyard. Sweet tea, a shelled bowl of beans, a book, a slow conversation. It doesn’t have to be productive to be worth doing.
Say no to something. You cannot have a slow summer and a full calendar. One of them has to give.
Grow something. Even a few tomato plants in a pot will pull a child outside and give the whole family a reason to step into the evening cool together.
Let supper run long. Don’t rush everyone up from the table. Some of the best conversations I’ve had with my grown children started twenty minutes after the plates were empty. I love that in my house, we often linger around the dinner table long past the last bite of food has been eaten.

None of this is complicated. That’s rather the point. The old-fashioned summer wasn’t built out of anything expensive or elaborate. It was built out of time, and presence, and a willingness to let the day be ordinary.

Old School Summer Starts Here

This month I’m calling everything we do around here Old School Summer, and this is exactly the heart of it — remembering what a summer used to feel like, and learning to build a little of that slowness back into our real, modern, messy lives.

I’ll be sharing recipes and rhythms and the kind of simple, low-tech ideas that made those summers what they were. Because I don’t believe that season is gone for good. I think it’s mostly just waiting for us to slow down long enough to notice it’s still here.

If you want more than inspiration — if you want the actual routines, planners, and gentle framework to build an unhurried home for your family, one season at a time — that’s exactly what we do inside The Homemaker’s Society. It’s where your people are, sweet friend, and I’d love for you to come join us.

Click the button below to become a member.

BECOME A MEMBER

Free Printable Old-Fashioned Summer Bucket List

Remember when summer meant lightning bugs in a jar and popsicles that dripped down to your elbow? This Old-Fashioned Summer Bucket List is a beautiful watercolor reminder to slow down and let summer be summer — sixteen simple, screen-free things worth doing before the season slips away.

Print it, tape it to the fridge, and let your children work their way through. No devices required, just long afternoons and the kind of memories you’ll all still be talking about come fall.