Summer, Part 1

The onset of warm weather makes me think of summers in the country when I was a child. My summers were spent here at our home and at my grandparent’s home in Kentucky. Those summers are like treasures that I open up from time to time to help me remember what a blessed and precious growing up I had. Summers were long when I was growing up.

Summers in Kentucky and Tennessee are hot and humid. You don’t think about these areas being as hot as the deep south, and they’re not hot for as long as the deep south for sure. But child, we are hot in the summer. You can shower and go outside and pretty quick your clothes are wet with perspiration. We spend a right smart amount of time just going from car to building to car all summer. And if you happen to live near a river, the humidity is worse.

But when I was a child, I played in the heat. I don’t ever remember feeling too hot because we stayed in the shade and when we got hot we would lay on a quilt pallet in the living room floor and cool off a while. The house didn’t have air conditioning but it was pretty cool because of the breeze that blew in the windows on one side of the house and out other windows on the other side of the house. The big maple trees shaded the house, too. And we were just used to the heat. Everyone was.

There was a water pump near the house and a big tin pan under the spout where you could pump out some cold water any time you wanted to and then scoop it up in the ladle and drink. It was hard to pump because I was little but Grandma would always pump it for me. Sometimes the water was so cold it hurt my teeth. Papaw would drink a whole bunch of that water when he came in from the fields and then pour a ladle of it over his head to cool off. 

He had an outdoor shower too. There were round concrete stepping stones leading to the shower and one big slab of concrete to stand on. The shower was between the smoke house and the wash house. Privacy was attained in the shower with the help of two huge climbing rose bushes. Water was pumped into a barrel and then you’d pull a rope to empty the water over yourself. I never took a shower out there, it was a little too cold for a kid I guess. That was before Grandma and Papaw had an indoor bathroom.  Me and Grandma washed off in a washpan inside.  I used to stand on the back steps with a glass of water and my toothbrush and ‘wash’ my teeth out there except in the coldest of weather. 

I remember standing out there one morning before Church, brushing my teeth, the fog just lifting over the pasture out back, the chickens making their contented sounds and the sun drying up the dew on the grass and on the vine that grew on the side of the front porch. I could smell the Downy from the washhouse wafting over to the porch. The sights, sounds, smells, made such an impression on me and even though it was so ordinary, I never forgot that day. 

Grandma grew earth worms for fishing in an old washing machine tub that sat in the shade behind one of the outbuildings. Every morning after breakfast, we’d go feed the worms ‘light bread’ and by lunch time the bread was gone. I used to go out and try to catch the worms eating. We fished nearly every week. We caught Blue Gill mostly out of Papaw’s pond. Papaw would clean them and Grandma would filet them and freeze them in paper milk cartons. 

When she had enough we’d have a fish fry with white beans, hush puppies, cole slaw, iced tea and homemade angel food cake. I called that cake “Cotton Cake” because it was as white and fluffy and light as cotton balls.  Grandma grew strawberries and my job was to wash and core the berries and get them ready for making jam, freezing and eating with that Cotton Cake. I remember doing that job from the time I was about 6 years old. There is nothing better than a fresh angel food cake with home grown strawberries. 

 …To be continued …