Just Chillin in the Country

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I can remember being a child and visiting my grandparents. They never had air conditioning, although when I was around thirty they did get a "swamp cooler" or water cooler for their farmhouse. Summer evenings at the end of hot days we gathered outdoors on the porches. My uncle would play his guitar, and we would sing. My cousin and I would dance on turned up galvanized wash tubs, and run and do round offs and cart wheels. I remember laying out under the daylight sky on a sheet of linoleum and gazing up into the thunderheads that towered in the painfully blue sky. I remember praying for rain as I knew that some were facing fires. We slept outdoors when I would visit without my parents. The men had beds around the lawn on sheets of flooring. The girls had beds on all the big porches. One could watch the moon, and see the giant moths come by, or the bats. They coyotes called. We knew other wildlife was out there as well. Right now it is cooler outdoors than in. Hubby is sitting in a lawn chair, in the shade, reading a book. We do not use much air conditioning, mostly fans if anything. I have cool cottony curtains shading the windows in the heat of the day. We use an energy saving air conditioner setting only when we sleep at night. It is good. We miss out on a sense of wonder if we never go outdoors, if we always stay plugged in. I love to look out across the field. It is awesome to hear the squirrels chatter in the trees. Technically we are not in the country. We have city water and sewage and trash pick up. We have natural gas and electricity. But it is nice here, and quiet and calm.