Summer Nights

I love going driving on cool summer nights. I love the feeling of relief as the heat of day melts away into a sweet, cool breeze. I love the twilight sky, somehow brighter and more hopeful than the heavy clouds of winter. But mostly I love that it brings back memories of cool summer nights of years past.

My favorite one, when I was eight-years-old inevitably comes back on every cool summer drive. My dad had stopped by unexpectedly, I assume to drop off a check to my mom, but he stayed long enough to offer me a ride in his Jensen Healy. With the top down we drove off down the road. I don't know if he had an errand to run, or just wanted time with me, but I remember stopping for ice cream at a shop I'd never been to. The cones held two scoops side by side, instead of one on top of the other. I thought that was genius.

I remember my dad telling me not to tell my mom, as I liked mint chocolate chip drips of goodness. I hadn't had dinner yet. . . a mid-summer secret. Somehow that made it even more delicious.

Just me and my dad, hopping back into his cool little convertible, wind blowing through my hair all the way home.

I love summer nights.



Other summer memories that make me smile...

Ghost in the graveyard until the moms called us home.

Fireflies!

Late night baths to cool our filthy, overheated bodies of the day.

Going to bed with wet hair on my pillow, the music of grasshoppers and frogs singing me to sleep from the field outside my window.

I love summer nights.