Sun, heat ought to be more than imaginary

Published 1:25 pm Friday, June 1, 2012

Several days ago, I found myself thinking back to earlier times in Louisiana — a place where, during the first week of June, I never once looked out my kitchen window and watched my tomato plants shivering in the cold.

I could also add that heaters and fireplaces would’ve now been unused for a several months and the sun would be something more than an occasional visitor.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m here now. Been here for more than a quarter century and plan to stay. Still, there are times (like the past several weeks) when I think back to summers down south.

This being an opinion column, I thought I’d take the next several hundred words describing a few things that I believe should be more common after, let’s say, mid-April. And one of them would be a sensation of warmth on your skin when you’re outside and it’s the first week of June.

(1) Lightning bugs. On some summer nights, my sister and I would get a mason jar, punch holes in the top to let air in, and then we’d go outside and catch lightning bugs. When we had enough, we’d go to our room, turn off the lights and watch them glow in the dark. We kids never grew tired of that.

(2) Inflatable swimming pools. Our parents bought one every year. Then, on really hot days — which could also start in April (am I making my point?) — we’d get it out, blow into the inflation tube until we went lightheaded, run the garden hose to it, and have a ball for the rest of the afternoon.

Tidal waves were a constant threat. They occurred whenever we’d decide to push down one of the sides to see if we could flood the nearby anthill.

(3) Soaking your t-shirt. A few hours after being shooed off to the local playground, we’d notice that we were sweating badly. To continue our games, we’d soak our shirts in water from the drinking fountain, wring them out, and put them back on. This would cool us for a while as the water evaporated from them.

(4) Ice houses. There used to be an ice house near our home and, on really hot days (that would be where both the temperature and the humidity were approaching triple digits), Peter Ricca, Alden Banta and I would take our bikes there and fill our baskets with ice shavings either to eat slowly or to have snowball fights in July.

(5) Ice cream trucks. They usually showed up in our neighborhood in the early evenings. We have one here, too, and I think it plays the same tune that I remember while growing up.

My all-time, cavity-inducing favorite product was an ice cream sandwich. Still like them to this day. The thing I truly miss, though, is watching the water vapor clouds form when the driver would open the door to his truck’s freezer. Don’t see that much around here. And we’re the poorer for it.

(6) Watermelon trucks. Watermelons were so common that, every week, a truck filled with them would pull up and park near our neighborhood. The driver would get out, put up a sign that advertised them for about three for a dollar, and stay the whole day. We’d be sent on our bicycles (which had baskets) to buy them. Pedaling back was always interesting because you’d have to balance that third one in your lap.

To this day, I’m not sure that there’s a more pleasing taste on a hot, summer day than the ice cold center of a fully ripened watermelon.

(7) End of vacation. Finally, I remember when my mother would take my sister and I downtown in mid-August to buy our clothes and supplies for the next school year.

I always hated that because it meant that our summer vacation was coming to an end. Do note, however, that we didn’t have to buy our coats until mid- or late October. That’s because this thing called warmth usually hung around — accompanied by the sun — until that time.

I’ll end this by noting my wish that they made long-johns for tomato plants.

The poor things are still shivering.

Larry Simoneaux lives in Edmonds. Send comments to larrysim@comcast.net.