Summer Love & Where We Find It
How far back do you reach for your first memories of summer love? For Lori it's all the way back to a beach in...wait, you have to read this Substack.
How far back do you reach for your first memories of summer love?
For me it’s CBC Saturday night movies, 6 pm on Channel 3—the only channel our miserable Muskoka rabbit ears would pick up in 1976. In the two hours between boring CKVR Barrie news and Hockey Night in Canada, I was granted brief escape. CBC had some strange ideas of movies its audience craved—spaghetti westerns, the Carry On series, The Littlest Hobo—but once a year came a reprise of 1964’s Beach Blanket Bingo with Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon, and me and my aluminium-plated TV Dinners were in summer luvin’ bliss.
Grease Is The Word
Next came the real summer lovin’, the 1978 movie Grease. All I remember is packing into Bracebridge’s Norwood Theatre with a hundred other popcorn-throwing 13-year-olds watching Olivia Newton-John shimmy around in an off-the-shoulder mini top and black spandex tights—again, not far from a Malibu beach. I wasn’t a fan of Olivia’s nor of Travolta’s between his Welcome Back Kotter and Pulp Fiction days, and I don’t remember caring if their relationship lasted or not. But I have to admit Grease lyrics really did stick. “Summer luvin’, had me a blast…”
Past Tense
And then there was that odd night in the late ‘80s, third year university, when my roommates and I stayed up to watch a midnight screening of The Way We Were on Ottawa’s CJOH. Now that was a love affair. Streisand and Redford’s love scenes—again, on a Malibu beach—made me feel all fuzzy inside. That is, until CJOH cut off the broadcast at 1 a.m. before the movie ended, leaving nothing but those rainbow vertical stripes to stare at… and worse, not knowing how things turned out. Did Hubble and Katie beat communism? Did they slay that soul-sucking Hollywood movie industry to stay together? Did they go to France? WHAT THE FRIG, CJOH? I know it’s a government town, but NOT EVERY PERSON IN OTTAWA GOES TO BED AT 9 O’CLOCK. One roommate was so pissed she called the station to complain. No one answered (it was 1 a.m.) but man, did she ever give that TV station’s voicemail a chewing out. We should have guessed love didn’t last for Redford and Streisand. The movie was called The Way We Were, for heaven’s sake.
All this is my roundabout way of explaining one of the reasons I wrote Summers with Miss Elizabeth. I wanted to rekindle the conflicting feelings I got when I first discovered summer loves are sweet while they last, but they don’t always last. Sometimes they break your heart. And I wanted those scenes to play out in Muskoka. Because, well. Because Muskoka is my Malibu of the North.
So I dreamed up four characters in the 1970s (Colin, Josie, Tim and Alex, the grandchildren of the marvellous Miss Elizabeth) to dive off boats and dance in the moonlight and experience sweet summer love, but who fall apart when something really hard happens—when all that sun disappears and the innocence is taken away. These teens are faced with love and loss early in life; they spend the next 20 years trying to get it back.
Where did you first discover summer love? Did it last? Drop me a comment, I want to know.
I Hope…
I hope you read Summers with Miss Elizabeth, and I hope you love the story as much as I do. Please JOIN ME for the BOOK LAUNCH, a summer party by the water in Muskoka: MAY 11, 2024. Everyone’s invited. 3 - 5 pm (don’t be late, there’s a special guest) at The Boathouse at Taboo Resort in Gravenhurst, on Muskoka Lake.
Or…
You can order the e-book and paperback online here. In Bracebridge you can purchase the paperback at Unique Muskoka, Hive Muskoka (the gym), Cedar Canoe Books in Huntsville, and Orillia’s Manticore Books. You’re also welcome to e-mail me here, I’ll arrange pick-up of a signed copy. And don’t forget to comment on summer loves…
PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT here on Substack (below) or on Instagram or Facebook, I’d love to hear from you.
Lori Knowles is a writer, author, journalist, co-editor of Ski Canada magazine, and editor of MuskokaStyle.com. Her first novel, Summers with Miss Elizabeth, launched May 1, 2024. Stay tuned to LORI’S STORIES.
I have many memories in a similar regard as you, Lori. However, I was always into B&W oldies, even as a child. My first crush was Deanna Durbin, in the film 3 Smart Girls (1936). The old black and whites came on CBC almost every night at 11:35. I became a late-nighter, even at ten years old, as long as it was Friday or Saturday! Deanna was sweet, mischievous and had a brilliant operatic voice. Later in '72 the film Summer of '42 left me spellbound. Jennifer O'Neill was the personification of beauty, grace, kindness, and what turned out to be a tragic vulnerability. Roman Holiday with Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck is another throwback summer of love film. Audrey is always a ray of sunshine. A wonderful old couch of memories to fall back on.