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Show Bits-n-pieces Real life begins in the summer By Susie Davis I love summer. I simply love the sweltering sun, birds having a convention con-vention in the cherry tree ruckus in the mornings, the feeling of green grass between my toes, a red splash of petunias, the hum of insects. in-sects. I love it all. I know that Ray Bradbury was right when he suggests in "Dandelion "Dande-lion Wine," that New Year's Day is when the lawn is first mowed. That is really when life begins. In the summer. I want it to last. I don't want languid days to pass. Because in the fall, it's back to scheduling and regimentation. There needs to be order in the summer but it's more a time to kick back and enjoy your MaMlmi yniiiiiiiMMiiwi'Miiiiwi'iM "mm children and the change of pace, and especially to re-create. When we go to our cabin in the Uintahs, I feel like that's what I'm doing, there is -. re-creation and renewing of ou, elves. Wildflow-ers Wildflow-ers grow up the r. .ountain, quakies rustle their leaves, majestic pines ramrod tall overlook the cabin. And I have the privilege of drinking the beauty in. Even as a youth in metropolitan Los Angeles, I loved summer. It was a time for childhood adventure. adven-ture. Now, I love to languor in drugless reveries, remembering the aroma of the pungent pepper tree and its ferny shade, open fields with prinkly June grass, and trap door spiders. Trap door spiders held a particular fascination for me. They lived in a tunnel in the ground with a front door and a back door and it was our goal to dig up the home, front and back door, spider and all. In California the alleys were in between the blocks and people had back gates and garbage cans. At eight, raiding garbage cans was as good as a dig at Cheops tomb. I look back now and wonder what the adults in my life were doing while I was on these larks! And jumping off garages was great fun ! I think God gave me rubber bones. A great adventure was the day we found a dead snake in the road "awnaHBmwinBBai (what a find) and coiled it and put it on Mrs. McNeilly's door step old, crochety Mrs. McNeilly. Well, she called the police and we hid in a basement and were "busted" for our deed. The police talked to us and we were incensed that they had "confiscated" our snake. None of us knew what that meant, but we were indignant and everyone knew mean Mrs. McNeilly deserved it! I still think that summer time is an adventure. Ray Bradbury in his book preserved summer in bottles in dandelion wine. I preserve mine by remembering. And I think he was right when he said that a New Year begins when grass flies! |