So Long, June. Welcome, July!

Summer is well underway and July is a month of summer stuff. July is National Grilling Month, National Hot Dog Month, National Picnic Month, National Baked Bean Month and National Ice Cream Month. It doesn’t get more “summer” than that!

Speaking of National Ice Cream Month, my family likes to celebrate all year. On Saturday I took the kids to swim at Outdoor Adventure. It was a sunny day, but they decided that they’d rather swim in the indoor pool. This may be because there is a lot more shallow spots than with the outdoor pool. On the way home, the kids knew we’d be passing our favorite ice cream place. They asked if we could stop, so I did. Both changed up their usual order of vanilla ice cream in a cup with sprinkles on top. Andrew wanted mint, which they can make with the soft serve. Ella wanted a Dole whip, which was cherry flavored.

The actually ate them all, too. I usually have to get a Flurry, which is basically like a Dairy Queen Blizzard, I love those things. I change up the stuff that goes in it – Resee’s Peanut Butter Cups, M&M’s, Brownie Bites, Heath Bar, or Kit Kats. I’m not sure what it is about candy mixed with ice cream, but it is a weakness of mine.

On Sunday, my daughter had a play date, so it was just Andrew and I. On the way to the play date, we pass the National Cemetery that my mom is buried in. I hadn’t been out there in a while, so we stopped. Along with my mom, my uncle/Godfather is buried there, my wife’s grandparents are there, and a few of my friend’s parents are there. We didn’t go to them all, but Andrew really was interested in the various sections.

Afterward, I knew there was a used book store I used to visit all the time when I lived over that way. We stopped and looked around for a bit. Andrew was thrilled that the book store has two resident cats. They were all about letting him pet them. We looked for some kid books, but there wasn’t anything he was interested in.

On the way out, the gal told us that there were a bunch of businesses set up in the downtown area and a live band was playing. He asked to go, so we did. There was a coffee truck, food trucks, various venders and a nostalgia store. At the nostalgia place, they had old LP’s, cassettes, games, clothes and other things. They had one of the original Speak and Spell machines that my brother had when we grew up. It was fun to walk around.

On the way back to the car, my son saw the door to this old church open. I knew from living there in the past, that it was the city museum. It is only open occasionally because of volunteers and such. We took advantage of the place being open and went in. It was a beautiful old church. They had different rooms with items in them. One room had a ton of old farming equipment, feed bags, saws, and tools.

Another room had old school desks, an old marching band uniform, sports trophies, and everything related to the high school. As a matter of fact, the room had every yearbook from the high school right up to the current class of 2026. My oldest boys graduated from that high school, so it was cool to see them in their yearbooks.

One room had a fireplace, an old davenport, and various “home items.” They had two very old pieces that I was naturally drawn to.

This is an Edison Cylinder Phonograph. Edison recorded “Mary Had a Little Lamb” on one of these cylinders. This one still worked! The guy from the museum cranked it up and placed the needle on the cylinder and a marching band played something. It was amazing how clear it sounded and how loud that speaker could be. He told us you only got about 2-2 1/2 minutes of music on a cylinder.

He then showed us this fantastic record player.

This one is a Victrola. It has two types of needles. The thinner ones play the record soft, while the thicker ones play the record louder. Once you use a needle, you have to toss it. He told us if you keep using the same one, it will bite into the record and ruin it. Those doors in the front are where the speaker is. This record was more of a dance band song, and it was really cool to watch how the machine worked and how it sounded.

As silly as it sounds, I truly loved this part of the tour. It was even better than pushing the pedals on the player piano! Andrew thought that was crazy. He kept watching the piano roll scrolling and watched the keys to the piano going up and down. He loved it.

Not a weekend of huge events, but it was a fun one just the same.