Summatime!!!

Summer...I love the Summer! I love how life slows a little bit. I love the visions it conjures! But spending the summer in Mississippi is an experience like non other! I have lived in the great state of Mississippi since first grade. I have never lived anywhere else since then. I do not know what it is like to have a summer free of sweltering humidity and mosquitoes! I would not know what to do if I had a good hair day during the summer! I would not know how to behave if my clothes weren't wrenching wet with sweat...stuck to every crack in my body! Folks, this place is HOT!!

But as hot as it is...it still has it's merits. In a Mississippi Summer you will find reunions. Class reunions and family reunions. It is a time to get together, sit around and reminisce! The smell of charcoal wafts through the air. Food is light and fresh...things collected from the garden...tomatoes, cucumbers, and squash. There are salads everywhere...congealed salads, potato salads and garden salads! There is always the faint scent of citronella, skin-so-soft or OFF! Sitting outside shelling peas or shucking corn...house full of heat from canning tomatoes and green beans and pickles!!

Children riding their bikes...swimming pools...lemonade stands...I can not imagine it any other way! Baseball...softball...horseshoes and washers! Folding lawn chairs and plastic checked tablecloths! Sweet tea and Lemon Icebox Pie...watermelon and cantaloupe! Fireworks and sparklers...hula hoops and jump ropes...popcicles and homemade ice cream! Fishing poles and trolling motors...crickets and worms!!!

Sitting outside on the swing or chasing Fireflies (or as we call 'em Lightnin' Bugs!)...listening to the crickets and cicadas...the smell of honeysuckle...the sound of sprinklers watering lawns...did I mention sweet tea? Hammocks and picnic tables...coolers full of ice cold drinks...festivals with funnel cakes and corn dogs...flip flops and tan lines...windows down...music blaring!!! 

Many of us migrate even farther south to the Gulf Coast and hang out on the sandy beaches of Alabama and Florida...Gulf Shores and Orange Beach...Destin and Seaside...As if the heat of our backyard isn't enough...The sound of the waves pounding the shore...I will go in debt to go to the beach...peace and tranquility...laughter and sunshine...family and fun...unrivaled sunsets and sunrises...the Gulf breeze...ahhhh!

It's dusty...rain usually eludes us...by mid July we have abandoned the swimming pools because it feels more like bath water...our yards, despite all the watering, become brown...we run inside for air conditioning (the greatest gift from God for a Southerner!) We start to dread the inevitable start of school...in AUGUST, of all things! We start looking forward to football and cooler temps (which do not come until December!)

But a Southern Summer, can not be replicated...the folks who have migrated to NYC get together in Central Park and have a picnic for all the Mississippians (simply because they miss it, too!) It is the most wonderful feeling on earth...it is a gift...and as much as we complain, we wouldn't have it any other way!

So here's to Summertime, where the livin' is easy...Here's to a slower pace and a thankful heart...here's to memories from the past and new memories to be made! I am really excited about this summer and I can not wait to enjoy all it has in store!

Hope yours is FABULOUS!!!

All my love,

Monica