Gary and John Dale

By John ‘Butch’ Dale
Guest Columnist

Well, folks, summer has arrived. And yes, I am ready for fall! I’m just not a summer kind of guy. Heat, humidity, blazing sunshine, bugs, weeds, etc. … you can have it all.

John ‘Butch’ Dale

I never even enjoyed summers very much when I was a kid, except for the fact that I was able to play baseball … but that was a sweat-soaked proposition, too, in those old wool uniforms. I wanted school to last all year.

Our old farmhouse on the hill was like an oven … especially upstairs where my brother and I slept. And I don’t know of anyone whose house had air conditioning in those days.

So when the temperature was unbearable, how did we stay cool? The first option was to hook up the garden hose to the outside faucet and spray each other, although cold ground water in 90-degree weather was quite a shock to the body.

Later on, we hooked up a garden sprinkler and just ran through the mist. I often jumped in the horse tank … even though there were a few dead bugs floating on top. The concrete hog wallow was much larger, but only about 8 inches deep. I ran the old sows out and laid in it a few times. I really never thought much about the mud and manure on the bottom or the dead sparrows floating on top. I think I should have!

My brother Gary and his buddy, Stan Weliever, laid in a large mud hole in the hog lot one afternoon. When they came out, both of them were covered with blood-sucking leeches … not good!

Another way to cool off was to hop in the back of our old Dodge pickup when Dad headed to town, sometimes even climbing on the top of the cab or hood to cool off as he drove down the road … I doubt that would go over nowadays!

My brother and I ran a fan in the upstairs bedroom, but it basically just blew hot air on us and never cooled us off until morning came around. We opened the north and south windows and hoped for a nice breeze, too … but usually just laid there and suffered.

Sometimes our folks splurged and bought Popsicles, which didn’t last long. It was cheaper to make Kool-Aid ice cubes. Fortunately my parents had an ice cream maker, and we cranked that up many times during the summer, but the homemade vanilla didn’t last long … soooo good!

I don’t recall my folks ever buying any soda pop, but Mom always had iced tea or lemonade in the refrigerator.

My family never traveled anywhere … no vacations, no trips to the beach, no boating on a lake. But alas, one day Dad announced that we were headed to Waynetown. Why? The town had built a public swimming pool! Crawfordsville didn’t even have a pool at that time.

We had a blast! But that was the first and last time Mom and Dad took us there … not sure why?

The best place to cool off was at the Darlington drug store after they had put in air conditioning … sip on an ice cold cherry phosphate, followed by a double-dip of vanilla with powdered malt on top … pure Heaven!

But what I enjoyed the most was climbing on top of our barn after the sun had gone down … on a cloudy evening … with a breeze … just laying there and looking up at the clouds. Or even better, sitting by the window in the haymow during a thunderstorm … alone … watching the lightning … listening to the rain on the tin roof … feeling the coolness of the rain front passing by … safe and secure … and a little closer to God.