Holes in the Sky

We are in the midst of a severe heat wave. At the moment it has actually cooled off at night for the first time in several days. On Saturday night, we were leaving Target at 9:30 p.m. and a hot wind was blowing. It felt like St. George!!

We do not have central air. There are a number of reasons why we don't, and some of them are actually pretty good reasons. They have a lot to do with some construction issues that came with the house in the form of a badly executed add-on.

We do, however, have window units, and I am actually quite good at keeping the house pleasant with the judicious use of these units, combined with some gently oscillating fans. We have a whole house fan that is supposed to suck in the cool night air - and if there is indeed some cool night air to be sucked in, it works well. There just hasn't been much cool night air.

When it's hot like this, it tends to dominate the conversation. And the newspapers are rife with stories of global warming and the like. I have learned quite a bit from reading these articles - not the least of which is that "lush green lawns" while beautiful to behold, actually hold heat and prevent the evening "cool down" from happening as quickly. We have built up the desert so that we want to live here - but the price we are paying is in higher temperatures.

So I guess it really was cooler when I was a kid. I don't have memories of severe heat - it just seemed to be part of life. But I do have memories about heat waves over the last 25 years that are vivid and compelling. One year at Girls' Camp - near Valencia - it was so hot, we just went and stood in the pool!

I love warm oranges - because when it was summer, we picked oranges from the trees and ate them warm. Believe it or not, they were refreshing.

Our idea of a real treat was sneaking ice from the bag of ice Dad bought on the way home from church (I'm not sure how he squared that with not shopping on the sabbath!) It was a paper bag and as the melting ice weakened the bag, we would surreptiously take small handfuls and put them in our mouths. Dad would holler things like "You kids keep out of that ice or we won't have enough for the ice cream." (We always had enough though!!)

We cranked the ice cream in the shade of several orange trees in our yard. It didn't seem too hot to stand out there and beg to help turn the crank!

I still love to be hit by a sprinkler - "running through the sprinklers" was often the high point of my day. Once while doing this, at a neighbor's house, I cut my big toe almost off when I stepped on an overturned wagon with a sharp edge (I'm not sure where the sharp edge came from.)

Nobody sued anybody. The homeowner rushed me to the doctor in town, who stitched it back together. And everyday for a week, she came by and brought me little presents - color books, new crayons, paper dolls. I was under 8 - and though distressed at having to stay indoors with my foot up - I managed to cull wonderful memories from that experience. (I think in a large family, being the center of many people's attention is a desired position!)

There were lots of trees and we sat under them a lot - or in them - where it was just as shady. And we dragged our mattresses out on to the patio and slept under the stars. And the Good Humor man came every afternoon with frozen delights that could be had for a nickel!

It's too bad about global warming and how it has pretty much made a rather grim prognosis for the future. I'm not sure what to do about it. I try to conserve energy, but I'm sure I use a lot - but certainly not as much as lots of people.

I wonder what the "summer memories" of children who are small now will be in 50 years?

And how big the holes in sky will be?