Monday, July 31, 2006

Last Day of July 2006

While I hate the electric bill, and don't really like walking around in the heat now-a-days there's something about a stretch of hot summer days which so overwhelmingly reminds me of my childhood that I must admit it - I like it.

As a child I remember those hot summer days when the road asphalt would bubble, and stick to my heels. Playing without shoes was o.k., but mom would get mad when I'd come in with the bottoms of my feet covered in road tar.

I recall Mr. Softy - the icecream man ringing his bell. Boy I'd run back to my mother, and beg for some change!

I remember when after hours of playing in the hot sun I'd race to my pals to the nearest water spigget. We'd all race as fast as we could to see who could get to the water faucet first. If you didn't get there first you'd have to wait, and wait, and wait for your turn. If you won the race you'd slurp down that water, and relish the fact that you were making your friends suffer.

Boy that water tasted better than anything else in the world as you'd gulp it down! Each gulp was more like breathing the water rather than drinking it. You'd drink so fast that you'd almost forget to catch your breath.

Your brain would be bursting from the heat, yet simultaneously send you into an altered state of pure juvenile pleasure over simple H2O. Ah the simple things are the best. The cold water tasted so good it really did.

Eventually, and it was probably only seconds, it just felt much longer, your buddies would pull you off of the water to get their chance.

Don't drink too much of that now! It will make you sick!
Make sure to turn the tap off when you're finished!
Would come the call.

Moms stayed home back then - well not always, but more often than now.
Always there to offer some motherly advice, or to offer a fresh made white bread sandwich.

Then there was airconditioning!
Out playing all day in the heat of summer, and you'd run inside to get something.
Oh my what an experience. From hot to cold in a second flat.
This was especially intense if you were swimming, and came inside the ice cold house.
Shivvvvvvvveeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrr!

And summer nights when the AC would be blasting, and the fans would be chilling.
Somehow those times seem more real to me.

The heat.
The cold.
The blaring sun.

Did I mention sun burns.
Yes, sunburns before anyone thought of cancer.

Summers then lasted for a million years.
Those are the days we all remember.

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