The Long Hot Summers.....

A few months ago, I wrote that the year is over at Memorial Day.  The rest of the year seems to fly by. The stores have started to load up on "Back to School" supplies and you know what will be next......yes....Halloween decorations.

Off in the distance I can smell the scent of pumpkin everything.....especially pumpkin spice coffee creamer or Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte.....

Although the heat of the past week is just a reminder we are getting ready to head into the dog days of summer.  These are the days where a wall of heat hits you the second you walk out the door.  The days where you go from your air conditioned house to an air conditioned car to an air conditioned store or office.

I think back on the days of my childhood in the Bronx......no air conditioner.....in fact when I shared a bedroom with my siblings there was no fan.  We were in a 2 bedroom apartment on the top floor of a 5th floor walk-up. The heat was stifling and you just hoped to fall asleep even though it was so hot.  I would flip my pillow over hoping to feel some coolness against my face.

When we moved from the South Bronx (near Yankee Stadium) to the Pelham Bay section of the Bronx, my sister and I shared a room.  In the summer there would be warm breezes that would make it's way through the alleyway between our upstairs apartment and the house next door.

When we moved out of the Bronx, I was 14.  We had upgraded to box fans in the window,  I was lucky and the fan pointed right at my bed.  My sister on the other hand had to sleep with her head at the bottom of the bed to try and catch a breeze from the fan.

It wasn't until a heatwave when I was pregnant with Jenn that I finally had a window air conditioner. It was in the bedroom of our apartment.  In order to survive the heat of the summer....we lived in our bedroom.  I ran a phone cord down the hall to the bedroom.  The TV was moved to the bedroom. An we even ate in the bedroom.

By the time we moved to our first home in Pearl River, we added 2 more window air conditioners.  I think someone gave us one and we saved enough money for the third. Now each bedroom had an a/c and the living room too.  I used to dread the annual "let's drag the air conditioners out of the basement day which usually fell around Memorial Day and the return trip to the basement in the fall".  They were heavy units and we had to take them up two flights of stairs.  I can assure you this was not done without some swearing and sweating. But the relief they provided was just wonderful.  Our windows which moved up and down with ropes and weights groaned as we would slide the units into place. They barely cleared each window.

When we moved to South Carolina, we learned the joys of CENTRAL AIR !!!! OMG....no more trips to the basement......no more worrying the unit might fall out the windows.....no more blocking windows !!

While the summers are hotter in South Caroline than they are in New York and Columbia seems to be the hottest spot in the state.......the central air makes it much more bearable and makes me much more bearable too......

I know the summers here are the payback for wearing flip flops in December and never really having to put my shorts away.  And yes....I have become a southern weenie.......I complain it is cold when the temps are in the low 50's....really!!!

Well, the days on the calendar are moving ahead and although I won't feel the crispness of fall leaves under my shoes or need a sweater until December....at least the long hot summer will have passed and on we go through the rest of the year........

See you next week......