Summer, Part 2

My favorite spot in the summer was up in the big Yellow Delicious apple tree. It was huge. Or maybe I was just small. I had a favorite branch that I would lay down on and read in the shade and munch apples. It was right over my cousins sand box.

He was too little to climb the tree for a long time and I would climb up to get away from him. It made him cry sometimes and I’d climb back down and play with him because I really did like him. Once he was big enough to climb, I showed him which way to go up the tree and I pointed out a branch that could be his. I felt like that tree was mine so I bossed him around about it.

Papaw had lots of apple trees of all varieties. You could stand at one end of the orchard and there were trees as far as you could see. I think the most interesting tree was the June Apple tree. The apples grew all up and down every branch. They were yellow and sweet but not good for cooking mostly we ate them fresh.

Sometimes the summers were so hot and it wouldn’t rain much so the dirt under foot would become powdery. When you would step on the dirt it would puff up and blow away. I remember playing in that dirt in the shade of a work shed while Papaw worked with metal in his blacksmithing area. The smell of a work shed is nice to me. It smells of diesel, oil, coal and working men. I remember listening to cicadas and the ringing of Papaws hammer while I played in the dirt with some metal washers and nails. It was so quiet aside from a few sounds. A fly or bee buzzing, a cow lowing, a rooster crowing and Papaw working and talking to my Uncle. There was never an airplane flying over, never any other sounds besides farming, cows and the occasional train.

I didn’t have all the toys that children have today. And I didn’t watch much TV. I played with whatever I found mostly. I had an old coffee pot and two old metal cups when I was about 6 and I’d put water in it and green grapes and played all day. Papaw made me a game out of metal washers and I played with old metal coke bottle tops.

Sometimes the wild kittens that lived under the house and barn would let me pick them up but they weren’t too happy about it mostly and Grandma didn’t like me picking them up because they might scratch me.

Once the summer was so hot, I knew it was about time to go to town and see the circus. Yes, the circus came to Kentucky. We drove for what seemed like hours to get there. Grandma in her dress and gloves and purse over her arm. Her black cat eye glasses all shined up and making her look very austere except for her big, friendly smile. Papaw in his black pants and white shirt sleeves rolled up, Fedora hat on. Most all the men in town were farmers and had farmer’s tans, Papaw included. Me in my little dress, socks and Buster Brown shoes.

We walked over the little city and went in a few stores and then I got to see the circus. Once that was all over, I was so tired I would go to sleep between Grandma and Papaw in the truck. I don’t even remember eating supper on the day we went to the circus, I just remember waking up the next morning.