SUMMER

With June, came beautiful summer weather with the vegetable garden and crops looking full of promise. Aunt Ada had a fenced yard and running water, a real lawn and flowers. Her pink, white and red roses would be so lovely in June, and it gave her joy to send roses home with Margaret and Jenny because she knew they cherished them.

Summer days were long and free, a time to quietly watch the ants and the beetles, to make outdoor playhouses, to dig in the dirt and make mud pies, to watch the birds as they flew back and forth building nests or feeding their hungry young. King birds nested in the ash tree and once, when Mother went to gather the eggs, one of the protective parents swooped down and pecked her head all the way through her sunbonnets so that it made a tiny hole and bled a little. Two brown thrushes hopped about on the ground searching for grain and bugs. They were much friendlier birds and Jenny and Margaret searched the yard for their nest, but could never find it. It was well hidden. On summer nights, after dark, a mocking bird sang his little heart out from the mulberry tree by the mailbox, a very long and beautiful medley of many kinds of bird songs. Chicken hawks sometimes soared overhead, and whenever Mother heard the chickens’ muted warning signals, she would run outdoors and flap her apron and yell to frighten them away.

Bare feet grew tough from the hard ground and often suffered cuts and stickers, and occasionally a puncture from a stepped-on nail. Mother and Daddy thought a good soak in hot water and the application of brown burning iodine with the glass applicator took care of all kinds of wounds. Nobody thought of tetanus shots even though Daddy’s sister had died from stepping on a nail when she was six and he was about two. The main thing, Daddy said, was not to step on a rusty nail. Wasp stings and various other insect bites were treated with a soda paste.

It was always a special treat whenever unexpected company dropped in, especially if there were children to play with. They never tired of finding things to play, and Jenny and Margaret were never ready for them to go home.

The Children’s Day program at Church was a yearly mid-June event.

Flag Day on June 14, would be observed in town with bright American flags on the lamp posts and along the streets. Jenny and Margaret each had a small flag at home, and one year, at cousin James’ birthday party, there were miniature silk flags stuck in the cupcakes that had little labels that read, “Made in Japan.” Tiny as they were, they had all 48 stars and thirteen stripes and a gold gilded wooden flag staff.

Margaret’s birthday was June 29. Sometimes it would be hot enough to have iced lemonade. The spring frying chickens would be ready by then, and the smell of fried chicken was tantalizing. When Margaret had her twelfth birthday, she was nearly as tall as Mother and she made her own chocolate birthday cake, her favorite kind. Margaret was changing. She and Jenny hardly ever quarreled any more, but Margaret and Mother would fuss and argue with each other and Margaret would say that Mother was nagging her.

Often the wheat harvest would begin in late June; sometimes it started on Margaret’s birthday and sometimes in July. It had to begin when the wheat was ripe and the fields were dry enough. One of the worst things that could happen to the tall ripe wheat would be a hailstorm. A heavy rain and wind could be just as damaging. It might flatten the wheat to the ground and the combine could not pick it up. The wheat harvest was like a holiday to Jenny. Mother would work all day cooking and baking for the hungry men. The kitchen would be hot from the fire in the kitchen range. Extra leaves would be put in the dining room table to make it very long, and Mother would carry platters and bowls of food to the dining room. It was a little cooler in the dining room, which they had kept closed off until time to serve. Margaret and Jenny helped as much as they could. Mother would grow red raced from the heat and the hard work. Daddy and the other men would come to the porch all sweaty from the fields and would wash their faces and hands and arms in the wash basin in water at the cistern pump and slick back their hair with their pocket combs. They would come into the house smelling of Lava soap. There would be animated conversation and bantering as the men ate their meal. Mother and Margaret and Jenny would eat later, if there was anything left and there was always plenty. About this time of year, the fireflies would be out at night, and Jenny was sure they were getting ready for the Fourth of July. They always came out just before the Fourth. It was like the night stars being brighter at Christmas.

July was always hot. Jenny liked the feel of powdery hot dust beneath her bare feet. Better not to step on cement or bricks though. In July there were red ripe tomatoes from the garden, green beans, and other good things. She liked getting ice at Uncle John’s ice house. Daddy and other men in the neighborhood helped put up ice in the winter, cut in blocks from a farm pond when the weather was very cold. It was dangerous work and sometimes there were broken bones from slipping on the ice. The ice house stood over a deep pit, lined with straw and the ice blocks would be lowered into the pit and covered with more straw. To retrieve the ice, ice tongs would be lowered with a pulley and raised to the top and put into Daddy’s trailer and covered with gunny sacks. It was usually very clean and clear looking. Once in a while, a chunk of mud would be embedded in it and had to be chipped out. The square wooden ice box sat in the pantry. It had an insulated metal lining and a drain hole into which the water drained out under the pantry. A big block of ice would last for almost a week, if the lid were not left open for long, and Mother was always very careful. Milk, butter and meat and a few left overs would be kept in the ice box. Ice was chipped away with an ice pick to fill glasses and pitchers. Jenny loved to make iced cocoa. She liked to suck on a piece of ice wrapped in a cloth. Some years there would be a Fourth of July picnic, but usually wheat harvest was still going on. The variety store sold fireworks and as soon as they appeared in the store, Jenny and Margaret would be allowed to each get two packages of sparklers, a pack of firecrackers, and a Roman candle or two between them. It said on the packages that they were “Made in China,” and there would be a picture of a dragon. When it finally grew dark enough to light the fireworks, Daddy and Mother would bring chairs out to the yard and Jenny and Margaret would dance about in the driveway. Daddy would light firecrackers. They didn’t care much for these anyway and the loud noise made the run and hide. Margaret would get to hold the Roman candle with her arm stretched out as far as it would go, but Jenny got to hold her own sparklers. They were beautiful, but they never lasted long enough,and it was disappointing when they were gone. It was still a magic night, and they would try to turn handsprings in the driveway and look at the night sky and find pictures in the clouds. The summer sky was different than the winter sky. Jenny thought it must be exciting to be an astronomer and to understand all about these things. The next morning she would gather up the burned out firecrackers and pretend she had a fireworks store.

August could be a bleak month with hot dry weather, house flies that covered the screen door and would bite. Mother hated them so much. The summer days seemed even longer now, and sometimes lonely. There would be a county fair in August with exhibits of sewing and baked goods and farm animals and a carnival with gay music, bright lights, noisy rides, cotton candy, snow cones, freak shows and many other curious things. Sometimes there would be gypsies traveling with or following the circus. People said to watch for the gypsies because most of them were thieves and that they had even been known to steal children.

During the last week of August, Mother would take them to Penney’s and get each of them two plaid or print school dresses. Daddy would take them to get shoes and each got a pair of brown lacing oxfords for school and winter. School supplies needed to be gotten ready. Jenny would use Margaret’s books she had used four years ago, unless there had been a textbook change and then she would get a brand new book. Although there was something special about getting a new book, sometimes she liked the old ones better; some of the new ones had been sanitized to the point where much of the magic and excitement of the old books was gone. Sometimes there would be new pencils, erasers, a new pencil box, new crayolas and always a new Big Chief tablet. The smell of a new school year began with school supplies and extended to the sweeping compound scent of the newly cleaned school house on the first few days in September.