Today, with summertime heat in the 100s again, it reminded me of the high temperatures of my childhood summers.

It’s late summertime

and I’m remembering being outside

in the day’s 105-degree hot, sweltering air

with our grandmother and us girls

picking morning-glory flowers,

making clover-linked bracelets and playing chase.

My mother, grandmother, and big sister

all wore sleeveless summer dresses

dressed in bright, summer yellows

and green-patterned hand-sewn aprons.

We wore brand-new short-shorts

and tops showing our bare arms and bare bellies too.

Playing tag, running and running around our house

we broke out in full-blown cases of brown gramma’s beads

as sweat dripped and poured down our arms.

Maudie yelled for us to stop and take a break,

and then our sister Mary Rose came out the back door.

Letting the screened door slam in great fanfare,

Mary carried cold drinks for us in a bright blue-flowered pitcher.

and parked it on a large metal table sitting beside us.

And guess what?

It was fresh, sweet lemonade, hand-made from yellow lemons

from squeezing out those juicy lemons on Grandma Ford’s iron juicer stand.

Of course, we added lots and lots

of white CH cane sugar from Momma’s blue-willow sugar bowl!

Katy and I felt so special, sitting with the ladies,

gathering in the cool summer shade,

underneath the old mulberry tree, hanging full of black-purple fruit

which everyday stained our bare feet and hands in purple!

Everyone talked about their day—

and after hearing their laughter-filled stories, we made ready to go inside

to take mother’s required afternoon nap.

We always slept on Grandma Ford’s

hand-quilted cotton pallets for each of us

spread out on our living room hardwood floors.

We ran to be the first one underneath a large floor fan

which was trying its darnedest to blow hot air on us below.

After we were lying down, Maude came back into the hushed room

to turn on the side switch on the wall to start our secret weapon,

a stuffed, three-sided straw watercooler, hanging out a back window outside the house.

Awwww, cool water-filled air poured over us,

with spits and sprinkles, as we felt water fall on our faces and toes too.

We were soon fast asleep,

taking our high-summertime afternoon naps.