Hot Summer Nights

It's been so HOT lately!  I'm lucky.  I have AC!  This has helped so much!  I'm not sure I could take the kind of heat we are experiencing now!  The heat coupled with the humidity makes life miserable right now. 

This heat has brought back memories of growing up in New Mexico.  The summers there are extremely HOT!

Days were hot and nights were cool.  This is very typical of desert weather.  When I was young and growing up on 1st Street, there was a front porch.  My mother and I lived with my grandparents.  Of course, when the days were HOT, nothing could stop the hours of endless play.  There weren't many kids in the neighborhood yet we played all day long.  If the older kids weren't there, I played with my imaginary friends.  We ran through sprinklers.  We went to the local store for popsicles.  Eventually, we all made our way home for supper, baths, prayers, and bed. 

This was a different era.  Windows could be left open at night to let out the hot and let in the cool.  Doors could even be left open as long as the screen doors were shut so the mosquitoes couldn't get in.  Then there was the front porch.  On those super hot days when day faded into a hot night, the front porch was our refuge.  I remember sitting in the porch with my mother and grandparents until I drifted off to sleep.  Many nights I'd wake up to feel a cool breeze flowing through the screens.  My grandmother would have made me  a bed on a chair, and she covered me with a sheet.  I'd see my mother in another chair sleeping soundly.  My grandmother had covered her with a sheet, too! Like I said, it was an era when you could sleep safely on a front porch.  I'd wake up with the sun and the cool fresh breath of morning.  Most mornings it was bright and sunny.  My mother would cuddle with me until it was time for her to get up and go to work.  Then the day would begin again!  Play! Play!  Play!  Summer!!!