A Light and Airy Hodgepodge

It's that time of the week again. Thank you, Joyce for the fun questions every week. 

Feel free to join in, answer the questions and link up with Joyce right here.

The topic this week reminded me of lyrics to this song popular in the 60's:

"Hot town, summer in the city

Back of my neck getting dirty and gritty

Been down, isn't it a pity

Doesn't seem to be a shadow in the city

All around, people looking half dead

Walking on the sidewalk, hotter than a match head."

1. Is your home air conditioned?

Oh, yes! Gotta have AC in Texas. If it's not air conditioned, is that by choice?

Did you grow up with air conditioning? No.

If not, how did you cope with the heat? 

My Dad worked outside all day and my mother stayed home, cleaning house, ironing, doing laundry, taking care of kids, cooking over a hot stove, hanging clothes on the line, and on and on. How did they stand it? And they never complained. As kids, we played hard outside, but came in in the afternoon and coped with the heat by standing in front of the "swamp cooler." We also liked to play with the water hose which cooled us off.

I remember as a teen standing in front of the mirror in the bathroom with sweat rolling down my face as I worked on teasing my bouffant hairdo. Hot. Hot. Hot. If you could get away with it, a way to cope would be to open the refrigerator door and just enjoy! At night, the attic fan would run bringing some relief from the cooler night air.

My first new car didn't have air conditioning and it was pretty miserable in the summer with vinyl seats and a black dashboard! I coped by setting a bag of ice on the center console to lean on. That worked until I had an air conditioner installed in the car. Unfortunately, that caused my problems to multiply because then the car overheated as a result of my trying to stay cool!! 

This was a HOT car! Literally!!

Share about a time or place you remember as being too hot-the temperature kind of hot, lest anyone be confused.

I have shared before about a very HOT day when my cousin and I were about 8 years old. We came in from playing and she stripped down, took the dipper from the water bucket and poured water over her head! 

But another particularly HOT day I remember was when all our family had been celebrating the 4th of July with aunts, uncles, and cousins in Arkansas. We played in the river all day, got terrible sunburns, then spent the night with my aunt who lived in the back of their grocery store. No AC there! My sister and I slept on a twin bed together with a fan turned on us and I really don't think either of us slept much that night because it was so miserably hot!

2. What's something in your life right now that falls under the heading 'up in the air'?

Making a trip to my hometown.

3. Your favorite light and airy dessert? English trifle! Delish!

4. When did you last feel like you were 'floating on air'? I've got nothing.

5. Airport, airmail, airtight, airhead...which have you most recently encountered? Explain.

Airports. Recent trips in the past months to Washington, D.C., Louisiana and Memphis airports.

6. Have you ever been to the Alps? Yes.
If so where did you go?
We toured Switzerland, Germany and Austria. Here is an old photo of us at the Matterhorn.

(I'm not crazy about this pic because DH has the camera or something in his pocket that makes his chest kind of stick out!) It was a gorgeous day there, but very cold. We were wearing lots of layers.

If not, is this a destination on your must-see list? If you were headed that direction this summer, which of the following would be your preferred activity...a gentle walk, a serious walk, a bike ride, a boat ride around one of the lakes, or summer snow skiing?

Our trip in Switzerland was partly via glacier train and I would choose that again, even though it isn't on your list. A boat ride around one of those beautiful lakes also sounds very nice.

7. What is one saying or phrase that was considered 'cool' when you were growing up?

In grade school, Cool, daddy-O. In junior high, everything was "stud," and my mom told me if anybody wrote that in my yearbook, she would tear the page out. Lol! They did and she didn't, though.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

Cool is a word I still use and probably too often.

Here is a pic of our son with a couple of his team. The guy in the center is a rookie and this was taken after his first fire yesterday. Our son, the captain, said the rookie did great! Jason had to go in for a rescue.

Jason is on the right.

I think he's a pretty cool dude in his bunker gear. 

Reminds me of the first time I ever saw my husband after a big fire. 

Heroes.