As has been stated here many times in the past, I'm not a fan of hot weather. The 3-H's - hazy, hot and humid are not on my Christmas card list - maybe they should be?? I do know that there are folks out there for whom the ideal summer is an endless parade of sultry days where air temperatures soar past 30°C. To you hot bodies, I apologize for this blast of cold air.
When our children were young, a string of hot days brought challenges. Yes, we had air conditioning in the house but after about three days of indoor life, the blanket forts, videos, and crafts lost their appeal and cabin fever soon raised my indoor temperature beyond tolerable. On those days, we made good an escape. If the budget permitted I'd take them to freeze in a movie theatre. There was something fun about bundling up to sit in a theatre when outside a t-shirt was too warm. There were giggles galore along with occasional complaints about cold noses.
Most often, we headed to the cool Mall. Again out came the jackets. I had rules of course - no fighting, or screaming. Violations were punishable by immediate departure for all. That only happened once. For the most part, these excursions were cheap entertainment - there was always something new to see - and mmmarvellous mmmuffins® (as the shop was known back then), was always good for a snack. The biggest, most exciting discussion was about what muffins to take home for Daddy.
The mall outing always included some small toy, craft, colouring book and maybe even brand new crayons or markers from Lewiscraft (no longer a retailer). Sometimes there was even lunch out in the food court. Then with muffins and nick knacks and smiles, we headed home, where there were homemade popsicles, lemonade and rest before supper. Then it was off to the baseball diamond or soccer pitch, and sometimes both depending on which child was playing when.
Those were the days, the best kind of 3-H days -
Happy, Healthy, Home
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| 1987 |
©2019 April Hoeller
I still like those particular 3H days, as long as they don't sum-up more than 3 days nonstop. In my city, people open the windows after sunset and suddenly the building comes to life through the voices, laughs, baby-cries, that merge in the building courtyard and come up to my attic, realizing it's not just plain bonded appartments but lives as my own.
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