Memories of Dog Daze.....

This dog day of summer harkens back to days of my youth.

The cicadas drumming unending in the swaying trees,

Popping tar bubbles on the deserted back road.....

The smell of tar in your nostrils and the black goo sticky on your fingers....

Reading Nancy Drew mysteries under a shade tree....

Picking miles and miles of green beans for my mother...

Who was currently spending her days bitching about the hot water bath canner in the kitchen....

But who would spend evenings and mornings admiring her blooming bleeding hearts and riotous zinnias in the garden...

Watching the dog lap up what was left of the water in the drying creek bed (pronounced "crick" bed, btw :)

Snakes baking in the sun....

Cats jumping for butterflies until they tired or the butterfly went too high....

Impatiently waiting for the kool-aid popsicles I made in the freezer to harden in the dixie cups, 

Obnoxious flies on the horses face,

The annoyance making the cows tails constantly twitch while they chewed their cud without blinking,

Watching my dad enjoy his cold beer after work on the porch, sitting in the rocking chair, surveying the farm, in his well worn factory grey pants and work shirt which smelled of the oily Air Brake, where he worked in 120 degrees...this hot day felt cooler to him......

Looking for the "sometimes treat" he would leave for me in his lunchbox (which smelled of wax paper and bologna sandwiches)

And the occasional sharing of his beer in my small but willing juice glass....to be like daddy.....

Stealing away to enjoy the sweet, dark, musty smell of the hay mow (pronounced "mow" like "cow") in the barn,

The sweet and silent terror and joy there of realizing the presence of a Barn Owl, who was regarding ME......

The surprise of the elusive and brilliant corn snake in the rows and rows of ripening corn,

Playing with the corn silk and the milkweed hair,pretending it was a beard or trying to turn it into a doll's hair for a summer project which soon got forgotten when supper was called......

Peeling your thighs off the backseat of the Chevy Nomad Stationwagon when you got to the ice cream stand that your mother took you to on a whim, and hoping she would let you get sprinkles or a candy shell.....

Diving into Chase's Lake with the water rust red from the iron and cold from the spring fed lake, swimming in the cold water while the old folks watched you swim and drank their cold drinks and ate Croghan Bologna and sharp cheese in the shade.....

Smelling your mother fry "sausage and pepper and onion sandwiches" on the stove because it was "too hot to cook".....

Your mother's inevitable and longed for Macaroni and Potato Salad with dinner.....

And then.....

The night came with it's blessed relief

Lightening bugs lit up my night and my jar as we found new energy when the sun set

And fireworks were the evenings event

And thunder filled the sky and you watched the lightening and counted miles in the distance....
and waited.......

Finding yourself on cool summer fresh sheets that had just been folded

In a rush

Off the line....

Just in time.

And then came the rain......

And with it......

Relief and sleep.