Summer Sleep Memories

I complain a lot about summer. If you read the blog,you know I don't like it. I hate the heat, I hate the fleas. I hate the cost of mowing. I more or less hate all of it because I'm a bitter old bitty. This wasn't always the case though. There was a time when summer was wonderful, when it gave me a lot of really great memories.

When I was a little girl, summer nights were delightful. Our house was designed to  handle summer, with high ceilings, shade trees, big porches, and lots of windows. My bedroom was at the front of the house. The wall towards the porch held not only two windows but also a door so summers for me included two widows to one side and two window plus a screened door to the other. This was way before my life got scary, so I never thought twice about the screen door being the only thing between me and the world outside. I would lay on my four poster bed and be cool and happy. Outside, crickets would chirp and whipper wills would sing. These were my first sounds of summer.

On nights when I would stay with my grandparents, I would curl up in bed with two windows open beside me. The room was small, with yellow walls and red carpet. I would play in the floor until Gran decided to come in and read to me. I would fall asleep, lulled by the sound of her voice. The bed was soft and the pillows sank slightly with my head against them. My hair would spread around me and I would pretend to be Sleeping Beauty.

When it got too hot (which, back then, didn't happen until very late July or even into August), my grandparents would move us into the living room because that is where the AC window unit was located. They would put sheets over the two couches in the room and set up a cot for me. The cot was very soft and had, to my little kid perception, a very deep mattress. As I would fall asleep, I would rest my hand against the metal sides of the cot and enjoy how cold the AC made them. The AC would be left on all night, but I would always wake up when Gran would turn it off the next morning. By that time, I would be cold and very grateful for the time away from it.

And so yeah, I'm going to go to bed soon. The windows are closed because there is a chance for rain, and unlike my house when I was a kid, most of the house doesn't have a porch to shield the windows from the elements (or us from the elements). We can't afford to keep the AC on and if anyone is going to read to me before bedtime, it's going to be me. Even still, I have all of these really sweet childhood memories of summer and I'm happy for them.