52 WEEKS……SUMMER

 

Somehow, I do not remember long stretches of protracted hear during the summer, when I was a kid.   Have I forgotten them or has it gotten hotter?

In South Western PA no one had A/C.   When walking past a movie theater, with my mother,  I remember the sign proclaiming AIR CONDITIONED.  There was also a movie poster with the picture of Lon Chaney as the Wolfman, I found out much later that it was Lon Chaney.   I never saw the movie but I wondered about the Air-conditioning .

A few days in the summer it would be hot a few days and then cool off.   When it is too hot to fall asleep and you lay awake I wonder how hot it was in the house.   I am thinking in the 90’s.    But, somehow, I would fall asleep and the morning would be not as hot. 

We lived in a two story house and the upstairs would be hotter than the main floor.   My parents bedroom was on the main floor and any complaints about the hot room would fall on deaf ears. 

We would get up early, eat breakfast, and after our chores were done we would be out the door.   My friend lived next door and Jean and I would play with dolls, jack, hop scotch and sometimes just go on an adventure.   I had to be back for lunch.

By that time my mother would find something else to do, usually involved watching my brothers.   I realize now that she probably wanted to do the cleaning and  tidy the house and they were in the way.  Somehow I felt I spent a lot of time watching my siblings.

By the end of summer I was looking forward to going back to school and the cooler weather.   I do not thing my brothers were as much as I.