It’s now the middle of August, I am more than 60 years away from my childhood summers in a sleepy town on the North Shore of Long Island, New York. Yet, summer memories sharpen at the mention of certain words: summer corn – on the cob, climbing trees, swimming in the Long Island Sound, my twin.
Today I live in Tucson AZ. Brilliant sunshine. Summer heat, morphing to hot. We’ve had weeks of over days with 107° temps. This summer I experienced my first heat-related breathing event. Ten seconds walking from car to store. It’s hard to breathe. I had to reduce my pace to a slow walk.
Summer Review in Arizona
- Do not go barefoot to “just run out to the mailbox.”
- Do not wear your gold necklace when you go outside. That scalding feeling is the sun absorbed, then transferred, by the metal laying so beautifully on your neck.
- Always, always, always have a bottle of water in the car. My first friend in Tucson gave me the gift of a small bottle of Refresh eye drops. “You’ll see why.” Research various sun block lotions and buy stock in the company.
- Funny as it seems in the desert, it’s best to obey road signs that say, “Do not enter when flooded.”
- On the plus side: You can hang a pair of wet capris outside to wear in fifteen minutes. Voila- dry!
- You will never experience seasonal affect disorder because of a week of dark days. The sky is endlessly blue.
- When the monsoons come, they bring an appetizer of humidity– perhaps 50%–not the 98% in the East. They also bring dramatic thunderstorms followed by astounding desert blooms.
“The tans will fade, but the memories will last forever.” —Unknown
Along with the pluses, and other year-round Southwest living, what keeps me happy about summer here in Tucson is the feeling I bring with me from my childhood summers in Miller Place. Here in Tucson, I still feel a combination of peace and excitement around summer. Too hot outside? Stay inside and leaf through my book to find the story about building a fort with The Squirts, or spying on the older kids, BBQs with sweet LI corn – on the cob, savoring toasted almond ice cream pops for 15¢ from the Good Humor man, diving off the rocks into the salty water of the Long Island Sound.
“Miller Place offered us an idyllic timeout from feeling the scrapes from our rough edges. Miller Place had its pokes and holes, but the serenity and security we felt there allowed us to look at the pokes and holes without falling through.” Summer in Miller Place was akin to going on a retreat today. Reading it brings a respite from problems, cares, worries that get filed away for the duration and, as in the space of openness on retreat or vacation, some surprising ideas emerge.
I invite you to share a cherished summer memory in the comments.
“Summertime, and the living is easy.” —George Gershwin
Thinking of Miller Place: A Memoir of Summer Comfort is available on Amazon, B&N, or a signed copy from the author. Contact Ethel.
Ethel Lee-Miller blogs regularly about people, the power of words, and her writing life. She retired after 30 years of teaching, and semi-retired from coaching, and professional editing. Founder of the Eastside Tucson Writing Room based in Tucson AZ, she’s posted 100s of blogs, and is the author of Thinking of Miller Place, and Seedlings, Stories of Relationships. These days she writes to inspire, to connect with folks, teaching about the power of words, gather writers together, and for the pure enjoyment of it. Ethel enjoys teaching, speaking, and storytelling at Odyssey Storytelling, Artists Standing Strong Together, Tucson Tellers of Tales Center for Spiritual Living Tucson, her latest endeavor New Story Pod, and anywhere there’s a mic or a Zoom room.