SUMMERTIME

8-29-10...SUMMERTIME

My Brother Norman and I used to sleep outside when it got so terribly hot. We didn't have AC I doubt anyone did then. Probably if they did they were way above us monetarily. We didn't even have a small fan of any kind. We had a quilt that we used as a pallet outside. Often one of us would go to the other in the night and say, "Lets go out in the yard to sleep". Up we'd jump an off we'd go to the front yard and lay out our pallet under the big cedar tree. Looking back I can't understand why we picked that tree. It was usually full of bugs that would fall on us and the foliage was stickery to say the least. That was the place we picked for whatever reason. It's a wonder a snake hadn't crawled on us. OOOH It scares me to think of that now. Isn't it amazing how resilient kids are?
One night it was so hot we couldn't really get cool even outside but I did eventually go to sleep. Sweat was running down my face in rivulets. My hair was wet and sticky. Sometime later I woke and the sweat was running off my nose and it tickled. I reached up to wipe my face and one big drop of sweat didn't feel right. It was too big an too solid to be sweat for one thing. Second thing was how it moved when I swipe my hand over it. UH OH, that was live. I thought probably a baby bird had fell out of it's nest in the tree so I cupped it in my hands and elbowed Norman. "Wake up Norman, we've gotta put this baby back in his nest". He said, "We can't see to do that tonight Sister we'll have to wait till morning". "What are we gonna do with it now". While we talked it over I got tired of holding the bird and asked Norman to take it. He reached out and I opened my hands for him to take it. Well By Golly that blamed baby bird hopped out of my hands and on to my bare leg. WOOPS! "Noooorrrrmmmmaaannn, That aint no bird". "What is it then?" Well let me tell you I had figured out by then what it was and it sure weren't gonna stay on me. No Sir Ee. I couldn't move that fast now if my life depended on it but I was on the porch in a couple of jumps screaming to the top of my lungs. "A FROG, A FROG, Oh My God a frog". Norman wouldn't laugh at me for being scared of a frog, because he remembered putting one on me once and I almost passed out, but he was trying to tell me it was only a little ol' tree frog no bigger than my Daddies thumb. Didn't matter to me how big, A frog is a frog is a frog and I hate frogs. I opened the screen door and hit the solid wall that was my Daddies chest. Knocked the wind out of me but I was moving on.
Norman had to promise me that he'd keep all frogs off me before I went out again and I wouldn't go that night at all.
Good Grief, Can you see a kid now lying down in the yard like that right out in the open with no cover except a cedar tree?