Summer began yesterday. Remember summers as a kid? School was out, and the popsicle wagon came by at least once a day. Sometimes a horse drawn wagon, other times a push cart. Always looked for a piece of dry ice from either one. Grape, orange, lime, whatever, licking it while the colored juice ran down your arm on hot days. Playing corkball in the street, going to the wading pool at a nearby park. Or having an older sibling take you to a real swimming pool, like East End or Rainbow, or what was really swell, Clearpool! Or, just staying home and running through the sprinkler, or maybe when the Fire Department opened up a fire hydrant. Getting a drink of water from the garden hose. ( How do you know a bug hasn't crawled through that?) And those water fountains at the parks that you had to stand on a foot pedal while the water gurgled up from goodness knows where. Stepping on a bee while barefooted? Or getting a cut on your big toe from a piece of unseen glass or tin can? And then walking around with it bandaged like in the comic strip? If nobody noticed, then effect a little limp. Playing out at night and hearing crickets and the buzz of katydids? Playing hide-and-seek- or kick the can? Climbing a tree and being "a voice from above" when an adult walked by? Skating on the sidewalk, and having one skate come loose from your shoe but still dangling around your ankle from the strap? Being towed behind a bicycle at breakneck speed while on your roller skates? Walking barefoot in a flooded gutter after a summer rain? (Good place to get a cut toe.) Sitting on the front porch, eating a tomato, orange, or apple, watching the rain fall?
"Those were the days, my Friend, we thought they'd never end."
