THE HONORABLE KAREN K. HALL, CIRCUIT JUDGE, 23rd Judicial Circuit Court, Madison County, Alabama
I remember long sunny days and breezy starlit nights. For hours on end we built sandcastles, swam, surfed, collected shells, picnicked and even Mom would let us bury her in the sand. The smell of Hawaiian Tropic always takes me back to those days.
KATIYA MCKINNEY, Marketing Specialist
My parents were Thai immigrants who moved from Chicago to Vicksburg, Mississippi for the Army Corp of Engineers. All my favorite summer memories are centered around visits to the historic sites with cannons on the bluffs high above the river where we would picnic. It was a simpler time.
TREVITE WILLIS, Producer and Founder, Southern Fried Film Festival
I loved spending time at my great-grandmother's house in the summer. I would sit in her sunroom banging on the piano while eating plums from her grove and the best tea cakes.
BART SINIARD, Attorney, Siniard Law
Being on the Tennessee River and Lake Guntersville almost every weekend – water skiing, tubing, kneeboarding, wakeboarding, bream fishing, you name it. When summer was here, my time was spent on the waters of North Alabama.
JENNIFER ESSLINGER, Registered Nurse
My first week away from home was summer at Space Camp. It was 1987, and I was completely immersed in propulsion, shuttle acronyms, and simulations that felt a little like breaking the rules in doing what only 'adult' astronauts could do. I met friends from as far away as Cincinnati who became pen pals. That summer was pivotal for me, including accepting an offer for my first job to be at the Space & Rocket Center...where I actually did meet astronauts.
DENISE LEWIS, Retired NASA employee and grandmother
In late summer, my cousins and I would help our grandaddy dig up potatoes and peanuts. Afterwards, we'd have a huge treat waiting for us - homemade hand-turned ice cream. My grandmother would cover it with a family quilt to keep it cold. We'd sit in the shade of the fence row and eat till our stomachs hurt.
