SUMMER!First, an astronomy lesson (very short, I promise):
If I understood everything I read about the Summer Solstice, that annual moment occurred this morning at 6:07 Eastern Daylight Time.
For years I thought Summer Solstice was a day, not a single moment in time.
Here's what I found at the EarthSky website:
What is a solstice? Ancient cultures knew that the sun’s path across the sky, the length of daylight, and the location of the sunrise and sunset all shifted in a regular way throughout the year.
They built monuments, such as Stonehenge, to follow the sun’s yearly progress.
Today, we know that the solstice is an astronomical event, caused by Earth’s tilt on its axis and its motion in orbit around the sun.
It’s because Earth doesn’t orbit upright. Instead, our world is tilted on its axis by 23 1/2 degrees. Earth’s Northern and Southern Hemispheres trade places in receiving the sun’s light and warmth most directly.
At the June solstice, Earth is positioned in its orbit so that our world’s North Pole is leaning most toward the sun. As seen from Earth, the sun is directly overhead at noon 23 1/2 degrees north of the equator, at an imaginary line encircling the globe known as the Tropic of Cancer – named after the constellation Cancer the Crab. This is as far north as the sun ever gets.
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Summertime, as I must have told you at least once before (I tend to repeat myself, but that's not always a bad thing)--anyway, summertime may not be my favorite season, yet my memories of June, July, and August from my childhood, on through the childhoods of my own kids, are vivid.
In the 1940s and 1950s we had no air conditioning. Visits to my grandparents' house meant I could spend time in the deep shade of the maple trees, nose in book, away from adult chatter.
The best treat at that time was ice cream--I don't recall we ever made it at home; but I remember getting lime sherbet ice cream cones (I didn't know sherbet wasn't ice cream, but that didn't affect the taste) at Green's Ice Cream Shop in my hometown.
Charleston National Bank got the first air conditioning that I ever experienced--I must've been in high school by then--and my dad groused every time he had to go in that bank because it was "too damn cold." I invented excuses to go inside to cool off and feel more alive. Eternal sunshine--why is it always sunny in remembered summers?--made me feel loggy, lethargic, and about half-alive.
That reaction to summer has never changed throughout my life. I never felt peppy and lively without the a/c, but I learned to cope. Life slowed down. When my own children came along in the 1960s, we lived in old houses with high ceilings. Without air conditioning, those old houses were comfortable because the heat stayed up near the ceiling. Ice-cold lemonade and iced tea may have helped also. I loved making cold meals in summer--big salads, lots of veggies and fruit, Jello with fruit in it, sandwiches; maybe one hot dish (but not every day). Picnics, at home or in the park, were always a treat.
Cooling off in the daytime was easily arranged: a sprinkler was set up in the middle of the back yard for the kids to run through. We took bike rides (no helmets in those days). We wore fewer clothes.
At night we often took long drives as the sun began to set. With all the windows rolled down, we created our own breezes. Everybody went--two adults, four kids, and the dog.
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When money was tight, as it was most of the kids' growing up years, we took camping vacations. Let me say right here--I do not like camping. Never have. Never will.
A two-week vacation for six people and a dog generates an unbelievable amount of stuff--clothes, sleeping bags, ground cloths, tent, food, cooking gear, camp stove, dog food and biscuits and a leash, games and books for the kids. At one time I took my guitar so we could sing at bedtime. All this equipment, six people and the dog, went into a Volkswagen minibus or, later, a Ford station wagon.
My time, on this camping vacation, was spent doing the same things I did at home--cook meals, clean up after the meal, wash clothes (coin-operated laundries had been invented by then, thanks be), entertain the children, clean them up, put them to bed . . . . But the difference was, I didn't have all the space I needed, or the appliances to make the jobs efficient. Mostly, I didn't have nearly enough patience for camping.
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Now that we've had the "longest day" of the year, I can relax and look forward to the return of earlier sunsets. The other half of that is the later sunrise, which I don't like as well. Soon, though, I'll be singing the praises of Autumn. School starts in my area the first week of August, and then the year seems to gather momentum like a boulder rolling down a steep hill. The lawn will quit growing so much. I'll run the air conditioner up into September, if this year follows the pattern of previous late summers. And before I remember where they're stored, I'll have to get out sweatshirts and long pants and heavier socks.
The seasons of the year follow one another in well-regulated order. Each brings its own joys and sorrows, and we are blessed.
Celebrate the arrival of Summer! Run through a sprinkler! Eat a popsicle and let the juice run down your chin! Why not? No matter your age, you're still a kid in your heart.
In the 1940s and 1950s we had no air conditioning. Visits to my grandparents' house meant I could spend time in the deep shade of the maple trees, nose in book, away from adult chatter.
The best treat at that time was ice cream--I don't recall we ever made it at home; but I remember getting lime sherbet ice cream cones (I didn't know sherbet wasn't ice cream, but that didn't affect the taste) at Green's Ice Cream Shop in my hometown.
Charleston National Bank got the first air conditioning that I ever experienced--I must've been in high school by then--and my dad groused every time he had to go in that bank because it was "too damn cold." I invented excuses to go inside to cool off and feel more alive. Eternal sunshine--why is it always sunny in remembered summers?--made me feel loggy, lethargic, and about half-alive.
That reaction to summer has never changed throughout my life. I never felt peppy and lively without the a/c, but I learned to cope. Life slowed down. When my own children came along in the 1960s, we lived in old houses with high ceilings. Without air conditioning, those old houses were comfortable because the heat stayed up near the ceiling. Ice-cold lemonade and iced tea may have helped also. I loved making cold meals in summer--big salads, lots of veggies and fruit, Jello with fruit in it, sandwiches; maybe one hot dish (but not every day). Picnics, at home or in the park, were always a treat.
Cooling off in the daytime was easily arranged: a sprinkler was set up in the middle of the back yard for the kids to run through. We took bike rides (no helmets in those days). We wore fewer clothes.
At night we often took long drives as the sun began to set. With all the windows rolled down, we created our own breezes. Everybody went--two adults, four kids, and the dog.
-----
When money was tight, as it was most of the kids' growing up years, we took camping vacations. Let me say right here--I do not like camping. Never have. Never will.
A two-week vacation for six people and a dog generates an unbelievable amount of stuff--clothes, sleeping bags, ground cloths, tent, food, cooking gear, camp stove, dog food and biscuits and a leash, games and books for the kids. At one time I took my guitar so we could sing at bedtime. All this equipment, six people and the dog, went into a Volkswagen minibus or, later, a Ford station wagon.
My time, on this camping vacation, was spent doing the same things I did at home--cook meals, clean up after the meal, wash clothes (coin-operated laundries had been invented by then, thanks be), entertain the children, clean them up, put them to bed . . . . But the difference was, I didn't have all the space I needed, or the appliances to make the jobs efficient. Mostly, I didn't have nearly enough patience for camping.
-----
Now that we've had the "longest day" of the year, I can relax and look forward to the return of earlier sunsets. The other half of that is the later sunrise, which I don't like as well. Soon, though, I'll be singing the praises of Autumn. School starts in my area the first week of August, and then the year seems to gather momentum like a boulder rolling down a steep hill. The lawn will quit growing so much. I'll run the air conditioner up into September, if this year follows the pattern of previous late summers. And before I remember where they're stored, I'll have to get out sweatshirts and long pants and heavier socks.
The seasons of the year follow one another in well-regulated order. Each brings its own joys and sorrows, and we are blessed.
Celebrate the arrival of Summer! Run through a sprinkler! Eat a popsicle and let the juice run down your chin! Why not? No matter your age, you're still a kid in your heart.
For someone who doesn't like summer, those were some good memories!
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