timeless songs of the summer

Some cows at my family friend's house in beautiful Studley, Virginia.

There are some songs that simultaneously evoke old memories:

childhood memories of bike riding down dirt roads and finally reaching the isolated, hidden creek just waiting for you to jump in,

teenage memories of driving down backroads, screaming along to songs with your best friends, with all four windows down in an attempt to combat the humidity

—and ground me in my current situation. For the summer, I have traded Philadelphia for my small hometown.

My days now consist of:

breakfasts at the diner next door,

Sunday school with kindergartners,

long shifts at cracker barrel,

early afternoon reading sessions on the back porch,

lightning bugs at twilight,

and late night walks home spent avoiding snakes and frogs and other creatures.

It is a simple life and I am trying to appreciate it every second I can.

Here are the songs that define this current season of my life, as well as all my past summers:

Some of my favourites on this playlist include:

'Bad Things'

Last week, I started watching True Blood for the first time and I'm obsessed. Seriously. My mom says my accent is back because I've been home for a while, but really I think it's because I binged the first season in a few days. 'Bad Things' plays during the show's title sequence, which I love to death. It's so sexy and reminds me of hot summer nights.

'Take Me Home, Country Roads'

Listen, even though the lyrics say 'West Virginia', this song actually describes Virginia. Actually, I did not even know the proper words until high school. Every year, the fourth graders at my elementary school hold a concert dedicated to Virginia. I was told that the song went 'dear Virginia' or 'sweet Virginia' for most of my life.

'Honky Tonk Women'

During my childhood and early teen years, my family had a place by the Rappahannock River and Chesapeake Bay. Almost every weekend, there would be live music and dancing at a pavilion down the street. One night, my best friend and I were sitting on the sidelines and a cover band was playing 'Honky Tonk Women', one of my favourite Stones songs. Next to us, an older man was waving down his middle aged daughter. Over half a decade later, I still vividly remember the woman sauntering across the dance floor, wearing a sequin halter top, daisy dukes and cowboy boots. The secondhand embarrassment I felt as the dad told his daughter that this was a 'family environment' and she needed to dance in a more appropriate fashion was unbearable. The woman's response, though, was hilarious and has been burned in my best friend and mine's minds for years. Without a moment of hesitation, she replied, 'Dad, I am 34, newly divorced, and I can shake my ass however I please!'

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—Milly xx