Cooling Off By the Water

The weather is so hot lately and everyone I know is dreaming of going to the cottage or the beach to spend some time cooling off. It seems people have been doing this for a long time. My own family has always seemed to love going to beaches and places with water in the hot weather, and I have a number of photos with examples of this. This wonderful old photograph was taken at Winnipeg Beach in 1946 (before I was born), and shows my grandfather (standing), my grandmother (sitting to his left), my Aunt Jill (on his right) and my father (close to the front right of the picture). I am not sure who all the children are. 

This photograph is also quite old but was taken more than 10 years later. Again, it is a family shot of people by the water, cooling off. The little girl in the front is my sister Marilyn, on her left is our cousin Eileen, I am sitting beside Eileen (with my head down) and behind Eileen is my mother. I don't know who the little girl is beside me - some strange child who decided to hang out with us. This was taken on the Coney Island beach in Kenora Ontario on a hot summer day, many many years ago.

Moving ahead in time, this picture was taken last weekend in a park in Toronto. My son Brian is standing, watching over my grandsons Max (4 1/2) and Charlie (2 1/2). The park had this wonderful wading pool with a fountain in the middle and lots of people with children, wading around and cooling off. Some things never change!