It’s hot. Really hot. Fried egg on the sidewalk hot. Pop tar bubbles with your toes hot – anyone remember doing that as a child?
I remember summer days so long and hot as these, but then I could enjoy them. I could run up to the neighborhood swimming pool or at least turn on the sprinkler and run squealing back and forth. I’d stay in the water till my lips turned blue.
Then I’d hear the ice cream truck coming slowly down the block. I’d run in and beg my mother for money, run back and get something cold and wonderful. My favorite was the orange and vanilla Dreamsicles.
Sometimes we’d have Popsicles in the freezer, those double-sticked ones you could share. Breaking them apart carefully, you’d give one half to your girlfriend (or sometimes your little brother) and you both could lick the sticky sweetness, your hands getting colored from the quickly melting stuff. If you were too eager, your tongue could get stuck on the thing.
We didn’t have air-conditioning in those days. My Daddy built a box fan and installed it in the dining room window, blowing out and drawing a breeze across our sweaty bodies as we lay in our beds with the window open on the opposite side of the house.
We were always dressed in as little as we could get away with, the boys shirtless and the little girls in those elastic-legged sun suits that tied at the shoulders. We wore flip-flops or went barefoot. The dog panted over our feet and dripped spit on them.
Summer’s not as much fun now we are grownups. We are the ones wiping Popsicle stickiness off everything, running the kids to the pool in the car (at least the car is air conditioned now) and working in air conditioned offices where we can’t see the sun but can catch the office cold.
Summer heat should not, I think, be avoided at all costs. Sometimes it is telling us to slow down and take care of ourselves. Rushing in and out of air conditioned rooms and cars makes us dread the heat when we can’t avoid it. Especially when we have to wear panty hose!
Slow down, sit outside with some iced tea or water, and watch the kids scooting each other with the hose. Tell some stories, show the kids how to get honeysuckle nectar, sing some old songs. Eat watermelon and spit the seeds. Work in your garden till the perspiration drips. Bring some pretty flowers inside. Breathe deeply of the warm air and remember how you complained of the cold six months ago.
And then, best of all, I dare you! Go run through the sprinkler, laughing!
I remember summer days so long and hot as these, but then I could enjoy them. I could run up to the neighborhood swimming pool or at least turn on the sprinkler and run squealing back and forth. I’d stay in the water till my lips turned blue.
Then I’d hear the ice cream truck coming slowly down the block. I’d run in and beg my mother for money, run back and get something cold and wonderful. My favorite was the orange and vanilla Dreamsicles.
Sometimes we’d have Popsicles in the freezer, those double-sticked ones you could share. Breaking them apart carefully, you’d give one half to your girlfriend (or sometimes your little brother) and you both could lick the sticky sweetness, your hands getting colored from the quickly melting stuff. If you were too eager, your tongue could get stuck on the thing.
We didn’t have air-conditioning in those days. My Daddy built a box fan and installed it in the dining room window, blowing out and drawing a breeze across our sweaty bodies as we lay in our beds with the window open on the opposite side of the house.
We were always dressed in as little as we could get away with, the boys shirtless and the little girls in those elastic-legged sun suits that tied at the shoulders. We wore flip-flops or went barefoot. The dog panted over our feet and dripped spit on them.
Summer’s not as much fun now we are grownups. We are the ones wiping Popsicle stickiness off everything, running the kids to the pool in the car (at least the car is air conditioned now) and working in air conditioned offices where we can’t see the sun but can catch the office cold.
Summer heat should not, I think, be avoided at all costs. Sometimes it is telling us to slow down and take care of ourselves. Rushing in and out of air conditioned rooms and cars makes us dread the heat when we can’t avoid it. Especially when we have to wear panty hose!
Slow down, sit outside with some iced tea or water, and watch the kids scooting each other with the hose. Tell some stories, show the kids how to get honeysuckle nectar, sing some old songs. Eat watermelon and spit the seeds. Work in your garden till the perspiration drips. Bring some pretty flowers inside. Breathe deeply of the warm air and remember how you complained of the cold six months ago.
And then, best of all, I dare you! Go run through the sprinkler, laughing!
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