We are in the dog days of summer here. I look forward to the sun sinking down past the horizon where its stinging rays can’t touch me. How many summer days have I felt that same way?
I remember summers without air conditioning when the mercury would rise past 100. Laughing we called into the churning fan blades and listened for the robotic voice that laughed back. Clothes dried on the line almost as quickly as my mom could hang them as we ran back and forth through the sprinkler nearby.
As often as possible my sister and brother-in-law would come over at dinner time and light the grill in an attempt to keep the heat outside the house as much as possible. Sitting at the picnic table Dad had made we laughed and told stories as we cooked and ate together.
As soon as night fell we would slip out the front door and Mom would sit on the front steps. We would catch lightning bugs until all our energy was used up. Then we would sit alongside Mom watching cars whizzing up and down the highway down the block, listening to bragging teenaged boys shooting hoops across the street at the park, and looking up into the star filled night.
I know those days were miserable. I remember the clock with metal rays shooting out from its face making it look like the blazing sun itself. Candle holders flanked that clock on either side. I can still picture the candles wilting as the blistering day wore on until finally the candles looked like they had made a U-turn and were heading down the wall most likely in an effort to get out of that hot, hot house.
The heat was stifling, and we were packed in that place like sardines. Miserable. Yet that isn’t how I remember it. Not how I remember it at all.
Memories of hot summer days Western Kansas paint my Bigger Picture this week.
I remember playing with a fan that way, too, for what seemed like hours. And jockeying to sleep closest tot he fan at night. I’m sure I was miserable, but all I remember is the fun, too. Loved this post!
Haha! Jockeying for the sleeping position that got the most air from the fan! How did I forget that part?!
Isn’t that funny. Now that I think about it I don’t ever remember being miserable on hot days as a child, and I certainly don’t remember staying in the A/C all day. We ran and played and told stories in the tree house…and yes, of course, we caught lightening bugs. Thanks for the walk down memory lane, May!
I have to admit part of what took me down memory lane was how uncomfortable and whiny I was feeling in yet another day near 110 degrees! Kids do seem to roll with it better than an old foggy like I am getting to be.
Sometimes I think childhood memories are like childbirth. You end up forgetting the pain. I tend to only remember the good stuff about being a child. I think it has to do with a child’s magical mind, always looking for ways to entertain themselves.
I am glad it works this way. I would hate to have all the annoying details be the ones that come to mind so easily.
So descriptive ~ and wonderful to look back through time and know the good that was there! I love how the sum total is so good, trumping the heck out of the miserable pieces.
Yes, in a way it is as if the bad just makes the good that much better.
What lovely memories! It is interesting that it’s not the heat you remember so much as the fun and joy and connectedness. More memories should work this way.
I think in the fullness of time they do become more like this. Remember, it has been a long time since I was that sweaty little girl! lol
I realize this is true so often … that the seasons I thought were miserable actually make me weepy at their memory, love spilling over the walls of my heart. Powerfully worded and, as always, so laced with truth.
There is just enough adversity to bond us to those who went through it with us I think.