A Summer Day...

It is early.  I was up late watching for the snake in the hall that was trying to get into my bedroom.  It was actually the vacuum cleaner hose that my mom left in the hall. 

Whatever, I was up late and now I'm up early.  Mom and dad are still sleeping.  We don't lock the doors so I quietly get dressed and sneak out the front door.  I cross the park, Thomas Blvd. Street Park, and head to a neighbor's house.  They will be up soon and I can eat breakfast with them.  I'll let myself in and hop on the counter and wait for them.  They are use to seeing me.  I like them, they are nice people. 

Now, I will walk out to the pasture and into the Runningwater Draw.  First I'll see if Leah can come out and play.  Debby will be up soon and she will join us!  In the draw there are deep crevices.  When we go down in them they are taller than we are.  They are deeper than a giant, or so it seems to us.  There are layers of different colored dirt and rocks.  Pretty.  It is cool there as the day starts to heat up.  We sit for a while and then walk.  We find Horned Toads and we try and catch them and on a rare occasion we do, but we always let them go.  We do not see snakes, although they must be around.  They are smart, hiding from silly girls!

I head to the house as my parents head out to work.  Bye mom, bye dad.  See you about 6:30 tonight.

I head back out and we swing in the park swings and talk about...everything.  Leah has to go home, but Debby and I head over to Diane's to see if we can play in her playhouse.  Boo, they aren't home.  Well, we walk down the alley between Irene and Ailene Streets to the very end to see if the hay truck is there.  It is a huge long truck piled high with hay bales.  Yes, it is there.  We try and count them.  That doesn't last long and we are off running, stopping only to catch our breath.

We have played hard and we are hungry.  Marie will have us something good to eat.  Oh, I could eat at home, but Marie loves to have us girls at her table.  We have to eat and get out though so they can play Canasta!  A group of women sitting around the kitchen table on a sunny afternoon, drinking tea and laughing, and playing cards.  Yes, time for us to get our swimsuits on and walk to the Country Club pool.

I head home to get my swimsuit on and then I had back out and Debby and I meet at the corner of the park.  Asphalt bubbling beneath our flip-flops, we start walking the 12 or so blocks to paradise.

The pool is big, blue and cool.  It doesn't have the foot sterilization bath like the American Legion pool.  I like that it doesn't.  The hot concrete is covered with towels, kids, and bottles of iodine mixed with baby oil for tanning.  We spend more time by the pool than in the pool. Mid afternoon some order burgers and fries.  We all share.

The sun falls behind the wall of the pool building and we know it is time to head home.  5:00, it is nearing dinner time.  Our skin is pink and we are worn out from the sun.  I head to my house to change and put on my clothes and Debby does the same.

I wait for my parents to get home and once they do we have dinner.  Then, it is back outside for me.  Debby, too.  And then we are joined by all of the neighborhood kids and it starts to get dark.  We play, Old Gray Ghost Won't You Come Out Tonight (our spooky version of Hide 'n Seek!)

It is nearing dark-thirty and we get the call to come inside.  Often I stayed at my house, but many nights I spent the night at Debby's.  Baths taken and gowns on we went to bed.  I would lay in bed looking out their opened front door with only the screen door separating us from the world.

Life was good!

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