Summer Mornings

These mornings remind me strongly of the summer morning when I was growing up. They were some of my favorite times. The main attraction was that it was not hot outside yet and everyone you would see appreciated that one fact. It was before air conditioning was widespread and we eventually got some window units that people would gather around, but most of the time we worked with fans. In the earlier days, there were only fans.

Windows stayed open all the time, except when a sudden thunderstorm carried wind with it. Then we would rush about the house closing the windows, at least on the south side. I'll never forget the smell of rain, carried on the wind, coming ahead of the actual rain. The temperature of the air would drop maybe 20 degrees in those bursts of wind and the packets carried the smell of all the ssurfaces the air had crossed getting to you.

When the rain finally reached you, the smell of the suddenly wetted street and roofs would block out any other odors until they'd been washed by the water for a little while. Then the smell of the grass, dirt, and rocks would finally rise in the hierarchy. Then after a while of that, the smell of the warm rain itself would be all there was. I suppose we were smelling the air or the dust and pollen and pollution that was in the air, captured and dissolved into the raindrops that fell.

It's all still there but I don't rush out of the house in the morning anymore. I'm not sure many people do.