Some Like It Hot, Not Me!

Summer has finally arrived in Southeast Texas. The heat index this week is projected to be as high as 110 degrees each day. It is hot, humid, and as they say back home, if you stay out in it very long at all, a little of that will go a long way. I’m not really sure how we made it growing up in similar conditions over in Louisiana without air conditioning, but we did. There were times when we no doubt wondered if we would make it as we tried to find a breath of air, but since our options were extremely limited, we just had to deal with it.

In 1954, after my dad passed away we moved in with my mom’s parents. They did have a very loud attic fan which helped a little on those sweltering nights but it only ran until my grandfather made his first trip to the bathroom. When he came out of the bathroom he always flipped the switch off to the fan. My brother and I shared a bed and oh how we dreaded hearing him shuffle through the house because we knew that fan would soon stop. It was bad enough to lose the little bit of air that came through the screened windows but we also lost that noise which helped drown out all distractions.

That fan along with the noise of the long freight trains that came through at night provided sleep therapy, except, typically you dreaded them ending so much you couldn’t fall asleep and then after they were gone you were too agitated to sleep. We used to hope and pray that Paw Paw Mac would maybe just once not get up, but he always did. He was a survivor of the Great Depression and it had a lasting influence on how he managed resources.

I was blessed to be able to work in Florida for my uncle in his salvage yard business during my 14th and 15th summers. It was hard work and on some days the heat was unbearable but it gave me the opportunity to learn much about business and working. Myself and another guy were the parts strippers. We would go out to the wrecking yard and remove all the major parts to be sold in the used auto parts store. One day we came in for a break from the heat and one of the mechanics in the shop slipped up behind me and put me in a headlock as a joke. What he didn’t realize was that he had cut off my windpipe and that along with the heat caused me to faint. You talk about scared. Not me, but him, and the rest of the shop crew. They had messed up big time and injured the fair haired nephew! And, believe me, they did catch it from my uncle!

I guess the summer heat is one reason we spent so much time in swimming holes. That’s what we called them back home. I remember one particular time we went to a new place for us and I learned the hard way why you never dive into a creek until you check it out. I ran ahead of all the rest which included by older brother and sisters and other friends. There was a little ledge so I reached it and dove straight up into the air and promptly came down on a stump underneath the water. It opened up a huge gash in the top of my head but I wasn’t really sure of it until the others came and saw blood gushing everywhere. About that time I reached up and was able to put three fingers in the wound. We loaded up and they carried me first to the nearest home where one of the girls that was with us lived. Her dad took me, put my head between his legs, and poured the cut full of Iodine. Talk about burning! They then called my mom and she met us at the clinic in Many, Louisiana. I remember her asking Dr. Frazier if there was a risk of infection and he laughed and then told her he didn’t think so since it appeared the Iodine had completely fried everything in and around the cut. They sewed me up and this episode became a valuable lesson, one I most likely already knew, but had not observed.

When we were able to move into our own house we had a box fan in the window which mostly pulled in moisture and stickiness but thank God Mom didn’t get up in the middle of the night and turn it off. Now that’s what you call a blessing my friend, especially on a long hot summer night. More later……………..