Good evening and come on in for a visit and cool off. We are still in the 80's and it is after midnight. We are still getting to 100+ during the day and Frances is staying inside. Lots of sweet iced tea, cold cokes and ice water is all that will cool you off. Of course you could do what we used to do when mama wasn't looking and stand in front of the refrigerator with the door open. If we got caught we got a sermon about how expensive it was to waste electricity but that was the only air conditioning we had. It wasn't that we were particularly deprived but no one had air conditioning back in the "dark ages" of our childhood.
You might ask how did we survive the summers, well there were a few ways you could stay cool. We had a huge window fan which sat outside the bedroom window and you shut the doors to the rooms you were not using. The fan would pull the air through the house to at least stir a breeze and the more rooms you shut off, the stronger the air flow. It made sort of an air tunnel to channel the flow. We would go stand right in front of the fan and hum to make weird noises while we got cool and entertain ourselves while we cooled off.
Sometimes we would spray each other with water with the water hose and squeal and carry on while having lots of fun. Because we lived out in the country, we had our own well and the water coming out of it was cold enough to give you chill bumps all over your body. We would spray it straight in the air and run through it until we turned blue with cold and mama would make us come in and get dried off. Of course we would complain while our teeth were chattering and we were shaking all over while mama wrapped us in clean towels but we were cool.
When it rained and it wasn't lightning and thundering, mama would let us play in the rain to cool off. This also included running through mud puddles, sliding in the wet grass, and getting all muddy but you could always stand still long enough to let the rain rinse you off. Not only would we be cool but the showers would cool the air and the window fan would pull it through the house to cool it also.
In hot weather, nap times right after dinner (lunch) was welcome for as you lay on top of the cool sheets, close to the fan, you would be cool and sleep for hours or at least an hour. Mama never had to beg me and Arvin to take a nap for we would go right to bed after lunch but Sam resisted sleep. At least he would lie in the bed and be quiet and still so he would be cool while he read his books.
Of course, air conditioning would have been nice but we managed and it wasn't too bad. I am glad we have it now and 0ur air conditioner is running most all the time and I just know our light bill is going to be off the charts. For those not from the rural South, the light bill is the electric bill or the power bill or what ever you call your bill that tell you how much you owe for your electricity usage. The lights were all we we had to use it for so henceforth the name - light bill. This was before we had all these new fangled, time saving devices.
Now that we have these total electric homes with all the "time saving" devices and appliances we have to call it the electric or power bill. By the way, have you noticed that the more "time saving" devices we own the less time we have. Every time a new device or appliance comes out which is supposed to save us time, we find something to fill that time we were supposed to save. I wonder if we got rid of some of these devices if we would have more time - something for you to think about but I have so many "time saving devices" I don't have time to think about it.
In case you are wondering about the lovely picture at the beginning or even if you are not wondering, I will tell you about it. This is what happens when you cook waffles without spraying the waffle iron with non-stick spray - it sticketh. Saturday morning I made my extra special blueberry waffles and forgot to spray the waffle iron and there was no way that waffle was going to turn loose. I tried a spatula, a fork, a knife, and anything else I could think of but it would not come out. It was firmly stuck and not coming off.
Finally, I gave up and unplugged the waffle iron and went to plan B. I got out the pancake griddle, turned on the stove, and burned most of them. My new stove cooks much hotter than my old one and I still am having difficulty finding the correct setting for a pancake griddle. Now I had a stuck waffle and burned pancakes and we still did not have anything to eat for breakfast. We salvaged 5 pancakes out of the bunch and ate a late breakfast. The pancakes were not the best but they were not burned, too badly, and at least they were not stuck to the griddle. I didn't forget to spray it, thank goodness.
When the waffle iron cooled I dug out the pieces with a fork and had a plate full of waffle crumbles. I nibbled on them throughout the day for I hate to throw food away even when it is in crumbles but that night I had a bright idea. These crumbles on top of Blue Belle vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup on top of the crumbles was pretty good.
The lesson here is that not everything you cook is going to turn out well so when life hands you waffle crumbles, put them on top of ice cream and when you cover that with chocolate syrup, it tastes pretty good. Of course chocolate syrup make everything taste good and keep your thoughts clean here. It also fulfills my mama's philosophy of waste not want not.
Well, it is late, I am sleepy and think I will go to bed.
Be careful going home and ya'll come back to see us.
Nuff said,
The Georgia Peach
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