“I will love the light for it shows me the way, yet I will endure the darkness for it shows me the stars.”
Today isn’t as hot as yesterday but the humidity is still stifling. Tonight will be cooler, and the cool weather will stay around for the next few days. The sun was out earlier but now the sky is grey, a light grey which hangs around but doesn’t brings rain. The air conditioner is still on and the house is cool. I noticed my neighbors had their windows opened earlier, but they have since closed them and put the AC back on. It doesn’t take long for the heat to permeate the house.
My mother used to keep the shades down when I was a kid. All the rooms downstairs resembled caves. She said it kept the rooms cooler. I remember going inside to get a drink and waiting for my eyes to adjust to the darkness. It was worse going back outside when I had to cover my eyes because of the brightness of the sun. My mother was never one for sun. She wore sunglasses all year, on any day with sun. We used to call her the mole.
Being a kid had such freedom attached. I don’t mean I could go and do what I wanted, but social conventions didn’t kick in until I was older. We laughed at the grossest stuff and told horrid jokes. Milk up someone’s nose was fodder for endless jibes. We thought it hysterical. I remember there was a joke phase involving Helen Keller and kids with no arms or legs and the punch lines would send us into peals of laughter. We weren’t cruel. We were just kids. Being dirty meant nothing to us. I’d grab a sandwich and not even think about washing my hands unless my mother made me. We ate dinner on the fly, no sitting down and taking our time. We wanted to finish quickly so we could take advantage of the daylight.
In summer the street light rule was not in effect. We stayed outside until it got pretty dark. I remember my neighborhood with the windows all open and living room lamps shining to break the darkness. It was as if stars had come to ground. There was a certain beauty to it all.
Explore posts in the same categories: MusingsTags: being a kid, being dirty, being kids, cloudy, cool house, daylight, dinner on the fly, dirty hands, Helen Keller jokes, hot and humid, shades down, street light rule
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keepthecoffeecoming.blog 
July 21, 2015 at 2:13 pm
It is cold here, turning on the radiators cold. It has rained most of teh day so the humidity does its best to make it feel worse too. I saw smoke coming out of chimneys today so it isn’t just me 🙂
If You haven’t seen Kingsman You really should! It is well worth the time spent and I enjoyed every second of it 🙂
We rarely ate together when I grew up to be honest, My siblings are so much older than me and had their things to do so they ate when they could, I often ate at friends (for reasons well known to You 🙂 ) and my mother ate when she came home from work.
It’s time to make something warm to eat and drink before going to bed, today is not a day to remember 🙂
Christer.
July 21, 2015 at 2:28 pm
Christer,
You get the cold and we get the heat. I wish we also had a bit of your rain.
Once in a while, the mornings in early July are so cold you need to turn on the heat to get the house warm so I know why the chimneys are lit.
We always ate together for supper, except for my dad who came home late from work. Summer got so hot my mother often didn’t use the oven so supper was catch as catch can.
Stay warm!! Have some cocoa!
July 21, 2015 at 8:54 pm
Hi Kat,
I wore sunglasses all the time as soon as I was old enough to buy them for myself. My peers teased me for it but I didn’t care. I liked being that girl with the Foster Grants. 🙂 And I hated to be squinting into the sun.
I pull the curtains shut on the west side of the house in the afternoon. The sun makes it too hot in here in summer and the poor AC unit has to work harder. A tree needs to grow over that side. Those spawns of Satan need to bury some walnuts over there where they can be useful instead of by the cement wall on the other side of the house.
Peapod came today. I took a chance and ordered one of their local CSA boxes. The farms are mostly on the south shore. I got a bunch of beets, a bunch of yellow carrots (yummy), a bunch of red spring onions, a bunch of kale ( :P, I think) and a crapton of pickling cukes. I guess I will be pickling cukes with red spring onions. 🙂
Enjoy the evening.
July 21, 2015 at 9:41 pm
Hi Caryn,
I think living in the African sun in Ghana where no Ghanaians wore sunglasses prepared me not to wear sunglasses.
I don’t have curtains here in the den and only valences in my bedroom. I also have no shades-didn’t want any- so the back side is wide open to the sun. In the winter that’s fun but it is a bit hot this time of year. Downstairs is always really cool but upstairs isn’t. It is just so difficult for the cool (and the heat) to make it up to the third floor.
I have to think about Peapod but probably not until next week. My list is getting longer. I did have to buy TP today. That was a must.
Have a great evening!
July 21, 2015 at 10:13 pm
When I was a kid in the early 1950s BAC (Before Air Confitioning) people kept their window open and their fans going in the summer evenings. Neighbors say out in front of their apartment buildings or houses on lawn chairs and spent the evenings talking and esting either ice cream or Italian Ices. Their apartments were too warm and the evening brought cooler temperatures. Men wore Bermuda shorts, Hawaiian shirts and sandals with black dress socks. The woman wore lose fitting dresses with flowered designs. Today everyone is locked in their homes with the windows closed and the AC going at 100%. Instead we now communicate with each other on Face Book.
And the official high temperature may have hit 100.
July 21, 2015 at 10:26 pm
Bob,
We were the same-the fan blew in the living room while people TV watched. We had none in our bedrooms, but I was usually tired enough to sleep.
Neighbors did sit out back and I remember an evening when the adults did slip and slide.
Men around here did not wear Bermuda shorts when I was a kid. Even boys didn’t wear shorts. Sandals too were not worn by the boys or men. They weren’t seen as masculine attire.
Even in Africa the guys didn’t wear Bermuda shorts as the Ghanaian men didn’t while teaching. We always wore dresses because that’s what the women did.
That’s it-Facebook is our connection to the outside world!