Evening star., 1936-07-25
IN THE PAST PEOPLE COULD TAKE HOT
High BOned Collars and
VOluminOus PetticOats
Worn Despite Heat Wave
Youngsters Dabbled in Brooks and Mud
puddles; Adventures in the Spring House;
"reminiscences

the water supply. We weren't vel
coined with any degree of fatted calf
and Joy. No. 1t didn't seem is If
they were even glad that we had been
snatched from a watery grave. The
only atmosphere that We were able to
detect with no doubts about the matter
was that we were actually in dire dis
grace, and about to be sharply pun
ished.
Both Stew and I wondered greatly
why, for some days later, water was
allowed to flow freely from all faucets,
when heretofore it had been previously
guarded, drop by drop. Also. we were
at a loss to understand why all the
water for drinking was hauled, morn
ing and night. from a neighboring
farm. =
MEMORIES of other heat waves
AA are less vivid, and less individual
in my mind I do remember, though,
how on boiling hot days we used to
draw lots to see who would be allowed
to bring the watermelons up from the
ice house The ice house was deep
and cold, filled with layers of straw
and great cakes of last Winters ice
off the pond-if you stalled long
enough on getting the melons out,
you could be assured of several long
minutes in the heavenly cool. Every
now and then, these days, I go and
stick my head in the mechanical re-
frigerator, hoping to recapture that
wonderful sensation-but all I en-
counter is wire shelves, purring ma
chinery, and leftover food. Hardly
the same esthetic abandon!
can remember my nurse tanning
me to sleep beneath mosquito net
ting with big palm leaf fan like the
ones they always kept in our pew at
church. It was more soothing than
an electric fan, because she sang to
me, too-which modern fans don't
seem to care for.
Then there were always the trees,
high and cool, where one could climb,
and stay for hours. reading, or just
watching the green leaves, and feel
ing the fresh breeze on ones face. I
tried once to initiate 10 in Little
Women" and attached an old saddle
to a branch, pretending that I was
riding a spirited steed. Maybe the
steed was too spirited-anyhow, the
saddle spun around completely under
the branch, and deposited me abruptly
on the ground, very bruised in both
dignity and body. And I couldn't go
yelling for sympathy because had
been told not to take the saddle in
the first place.
X X 4 X
livery one took siesta after
lunch-after supper We children
were allowed to stay up until it grew
really dark, and catch href1ies on the
lawn. After thunderstorms we went
out and waded in the puddles and
rivulets in the driveway-and when
it was just shower, with no lightning,
we could stay out in 1t in bathing
suits or rompers, and have a Won
derful time with the best shower bath
in the world.
There was quiet. in those days-only
the droning of insects, and the lisp
lisp of the palm-leaf fans. Every one
wore an appalling amount of clothing,
but they never got hot and bothered.
The ladies. with high-boned collars,
sewed daintily at satin-covered pin
cushions and tides for next Christ
mas gifts; the gentlemen read the
papers. looked over the farm, or talked
politics amicably. (Yes, that was
even possible, thenD We youngsters
happily made mudpies, or played in
the great hayloft for hours on end
I wish heat waves hadn't become
so intense and modern! Like every
thing else, they feel they have to be
bigger and better than their fellows
success only comes to those who can
create more of an impression than
some one else. It's discouraging, be-
cause heat waves used to be nice!