I hate to see summer go

I love summer. I love fall, too, but I always get a little melancholy, because I know winter is not too far behind. For some reason I equate summer with the simpler life that I grew up in and find myself longing for those simpler times. Summers in Georgia for me as a girl were enchanting. I loved hearing the hum of a lawn mower and smelling the fresh cut grass and the wild onions. I loved it when the sun finally set on a hot summer day and with it came a slight drop in temperature that brought it down to warm. I loved the smell of a freshly plowed garden and then watching the tomatoes form on the vine. And then later, pulling a fat, ripe warm tomato off and eating it right there in the garden. I loved it when Mom and Granny and Aunt Dess and Aunt Myra would gather around to freeze corn or snap beans. I loved hearing all the juicy gossip about someone in the neighborhood or church. I loved watching them carrying on the traditions that had been handed down to them. I did hate the insects.

I loved Bible School. And flipflops. We either went barefoot or wore flipflops in the summer. Most of the time we were barefoot, but we wore flipflops to Bible School. I loved it when you wore the flipflops so much that the color wore thru the white where your heel was. I love the songs we sang at Bible School, "I've Got The Joy, Joy, Joy, Joy, Down In My Heart", "This Little Light of Mine", "Sing and Smile and Pray", and best of all, "Hallelu". I loved pledging allegiance to the American Flag, the Christian Flag and the Bible. And I absolutely loved marching in to "Onward Christian Soldiers". Of course, I loved the crafts.

I loved summer revivals. We had morning service and evening service. We sang the good old songs with Harry Sellars leading us. And then on one night every year, we got to have the preacher over to eat with us. My favorite was Preacher Bill, who would later marry Mike and me, Lynn and Keith, and Hillary and Chris. I loved walking out into the balmy night after the revival with a tenderness in my heart for my Jesus.

I loved putting a "palette" down on the floor, a handmade quilt, and taking a nap in front of a fan. Aunt Dess had a window fan in her house that we loved to stand in front of and sing or talk and let the wind distort our voices. I loved cookouts with all the Hill family, making ice cream and cooking hotdogs and hamburgers or maybe having a fish fry.

Most of all, what I loved was going out to sit with Daddy (Papa) when the sun went down. We would look up into the black sky, and back then it was jet black. No lights to keep it from darkening like now. We would find constellations and fix our eyes on a certain bright star to see if it really was a star or a satelite. A star would stay in place. I felt very secure then. Even though we were out in the dark and unprotected, I was by my Daddy, asking him all my burning questions, and felt very secure.

So, yes, I hate to see summer go. But fall is great, and then there's my favorite time of year, Christmas. Then all I have to do is get through January and February, and it starts all over again. Easter isn't that far away :)