Summer days and summer nights - all care free. Summer meant Dad's fan door would replace the full door to the attic. Dad had cut an old door nearly in half, replacing the top half with a huge fan. The first hot day of summer and dad would pull the full door off the hinges and the fan door would be installed. The front attic window was chained open, giving the air an escape route. When rain was near one of us kids would be sent up to secure the attic window shut. Always with an angry hornet struggling against the screen, giving us kids a reason to dread that simple chore. No one ever got stung - it was just the possibility…
Plugging in that fan was exciting, it sucked the air from every room in the house. First my parent's bedroom door - bam! Then my sister's room door . Bam, bam, bam! Curtains waving in the air, fresh air cooling the house down. It was exhilarating and meant summer had come.
Next came the front porch swings. They were fairly simple putting up. Getting them down from the garage loft was the real problem. Hornets, again, challenged us as to who owned the loft. Dad never got concerned about the hornets or spiders or even about dogs with angry smiles. Mom's backyard swing was the official summer-arriving finish line. Her swing was where she folded the wash and where my brothers folded the newspapers before delivering them. My job was pulling the red wagon loaded with the papers that they couldn't squeeze into their official carrier bags.
Summer had begun, and it was full of things to do.
