I go from one memory to another... depending on what rings my bell. It's a magic bell in my head... full of those memories.
Summertime in Indiana was the place to be... if you could. Bright sunshine, showers and bright sunshine again. We had a tar road past our house and each summer the road crews would come by and spread tar to smooth out the road from winter's wear. The tar truck smelled so strong... and the men crew would stop at our house to eat their sack lunches. We had 2 medium sized maple trees in the front of our house and they'd sit under those trees along the road in the shade and eat. The shade and the green grass were perfect conditions for them to sit and break long enough to eat.
We did get that fresh tar on our feet/shoes. The fix for that was to rub some grease (lard, crisco) on the tar to loosen it.. then wash the area with dish soap. That works on cars, shoes, clothes, anything.
I'd ride my bike down the road where the tar would blister in the summer heat... the bike's tires would run over the blisters and you'd hear 'pop, pop, pop' all the way down the road.
There were a few summers when I stayed with my aunt in the country. My cousin would come too and we'd be there for a week... Aunt Grace washed her clothes on Monday in the little room/shed out back, a few feet from the back door. The washer was a round Maytag, with rollers to wring the clothes and drop them into the rinse tub, and then to the basket to hang on the line.
They'd start early in the morning with the wash. I'd check out what they were doing.. and got my hand in the wringer, pulling not only my hand, but my arm as well. They'd yell and pop the top of the wringer .. to release the pressure on my hand and then get it out. It hurt enough to not get a hand close to those rollers again.
I remember the sound of the wind blowing through the screen on that shed/room. Just a slight whistle sound. That sound today brings a feeling of "ahhhhhhh".. and I just love it. One time we were looking for a house to buy and after looking for a couple of years, we saw one that had a screened back porch/deck, and there happened to be a breeze that day... the breeze gave that sound and I wanted that house. It wasn't exactly what we were looking for, but it was okay and it had that one thing that brought back those memories of a time when life was safe and all was well... as a child growing up, that matters. We made an offer on that house. It had been on the market for 2 years and not sold. As soon as we made an offer, someone else beat us by a day and they bought it. I didn't get my screened porch with a breeze.
My cousin and I were at Aunt Grace's and there were no toys to speak of ... we didn't have the luxury of having a room full of toys to keep us busy... we made do with what was available and didn't know the difference.. We'd walk to Little Grandma's (my cousin's grandma), which was a little walk down a country gravel road. She grew rabbits. She'd mow the yard with a small push mower.. the reel kind... and catch the grass in a catcher.. then give it to the caged rabbits. I didn't know it then, but they were sold to people who ate rabbit meat.
The way to 'beat the heat' in Indiana was to have a building outside that was under ground level. Those rooms were so nice and cool. They'd keep watermelon down there and we'd even eat in those under ground rooms. Little Grandma had one beneath her house. It was a basement or cellar, and it was all cleaned up with a table and a little kitchen down there. it was a delight to have all the family in and all eat in the cool of the room... even when it was hot outside.
We'd get together at our house too. Every Sunday they'd all come and bring food... we'd eat.. take family pictures and the kids would play while the adults 'talked'. Family get-togethers were a way cousins knew one another.. and to this day, we still do.
Life was simple. Life was good. It's nice to have had those years to remember.
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