God, it is hot for Turkey Hollow.

Yes, compared to the drenching, sweltering heat that New York or Washington, D.C. are experiencing, the Hollow is just a cool breeze. However, I have gotten used to the cool of the mountains and the nearby rivers, so it seems very hot indeed. When it edges into the upper 80s here we start complaining in Johnny's Barbershop how hot it has become. The old timers get out their fans and the porches become the centers of all social interaction. Cold lemonade and iced tea are readily available in most homes and the kids make Kool-Aid ice cubes. The cats and dogs stretch way out on the cool textures of the floor and it is almost impossible to move them until they hear the can opener signalling dinner. Then they jump quickly up and they start rubbing against your leg as if they have been your best friend all day.

Driving back to the Hollow from town, I passed kids swimming in the river and it took me back to my youth on the farm.

Long heat waves are not good for farmers and my Dad used to dread them. They dry out the crops and instill fears of a possible crippling drought. Back then we had no satellites giving us long range weather forecasts and the farmers were left to their own instincts. If the heat lasted more than a week and there were no gathering storm clouds, you could see the worry on the adult faces.

For us kids, heat meant hardly any clothes, skinny dipping in the irrigation pond down in the field or creating our own 'pools' made out of any materials we could find. We would take our wooden long picnic benches and create a square with them. Then we would take one of the canvas tops from the 'steel body trucks' and spread it over the four benches. Suddenly we would have our own 'swimming pool' that was about three feet deep to splash around and soak the heat out of our bodies. Of course, if we would play too hard we would knock over one of the benches and there would go our pool!

At night, a hot summer evening meant gathering on the front porch of the house. Everyone sat on it, dinner was had on it, we would sleep on it at night. It quite simply became the center of our home. Before nightfall, it would be my job to hose down the porch to get the day heat out of it. Grandpa Grove (Buzzard Bait) would rock away and share stories. Dad would take a break from the fields and join us for dinner. Mom would make a cool meal of sliced fresh Jersey Tomatoes, potato salad, hot dogs and rolls and frosty iced tea. The fire flies would light up the outstretched flat fields.

If we were lucky and Dad didn't have to harvest peas at night, we would drive to the local drive-in for frozen custard. One time in the early 1950s we all went to see the original "King Kong" with Fay Wray. For weeks after seeing the movie, I would be asleep on the front porch or my small bedroom with the windows wide open and wake in the middle of the night screaming that "King Kong" was on the roof! It drove my parents nuts but I still believe today that he was on the roof and I saved the family by alerting them!

So tonight, unlike my grandfather, I will leave on the central air up here in Turkey Hollow. However, I will go out on the porch and take my place in the big rocker. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Whatever weather you're having this summer, enjoy.