The hot temperatures and high humidity that goes along with it seem to take their toll on folks all over the Great Plains. After living away from this part of the world for two years, I had forgotten what it was like to swelter through the summertime days. It didn't take long to remember. 57 years of my life were spent on the plains of Kansas where hot and sticky weather was the "norm". I guess you could say that I was a little spoiled in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.
When we were kids growing up on the farm in south-central Kansas, I can only remember my folks having an old water cooler to keep our house bearable during the summer. From time to time, my dad would go outside and take the water hose to it and soak up all of the pads in the back. It was fun to stand in front of it and cool off before heading back outside to play in the heat once again. When you are a little kid you really don't know all that much better. You get hot. You come in for a while. A couple of drinks of something cold and back outdoors you return once again. Shoot, sometimes we didn't even bother to come in for a drink from the faucet. As long as we could get to where the garden hose was hooked up, we had all the thirst quenching liquid we could handle. Life was good.
It still is.
Back in the old days, long before we had wonderfully insulated coolers to carry drinks in, my mom would make my dad quart mason jars filled with koolaid and ice cubes. She'd wrap them up in old gunny sack material and tie them off with twine before carting them out to the field where he was working. They always seemed to stay plenty cool and would help my dad stay hydrated after working in the fields all day long. I can't help but to think of it once in a while, especially when I go into restaurants where they serve their customers' drinks in modern day glass jars.
I love the months of June, July, and August. Always have and always will yet even though it once was, the season of summer is no longer my favorite one. I've become an autumn person now and I look forward to the days when the leaves change colors and fall to the ground. I'm partial to pumpkins, wearing my "oldie but goodie" Haven High School sweatshirt, and drinking a big mug of spicy hot tea on a cool October evening. I doubt that you will ever hear me say that my favorite season is winter but then again I sure never thought that I'd say that summer no longer ranked at #1 for me.
These long days of summer will not continue forever but while they do I remain grateful for a home with air conditioning to keep us cool and comfortable, water to drink aplenty at the present time, and the ability to "soldier on" even though you get the feeling you could succumb to 63% humidity at any moment. There are plenty of other people in this world of ours who would gladly step in and trade places with me right at this very moment.
In the very least of things, even with sweat upon our backs and upon our brows, we still give thanks.
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