Summer Memory

When I was a child, we would get on a train and travel to Ohio to visit my grandparents on their farm.  They lived in a real log house, with a red pump to provide water at the kitchen sink.  There was a long, splintery porch with a big dinner bell on a pole.  There was a trap door to the attic, where we slept.  There was a rustic corner cupboard where I would get jelly jar glasses to set the dinner table.  And their refrigerator…

…imagine summer days so hot you give up on shoes, even when running on gravel.  No A/C or fan in sight.  As a child, I think I usually forgot about the heat, but once in awhile you remember and so you come on in from exploring and playing and open the heavy old refrigerator door…

… to find the special treats that Grandma and Grandpa stock up on for just these visits.  Cold, cold green glass bottles of real ginger ale on the rack.  And in the freezer- oh, my gosh- frozen Milky Way bars!  Can you imagine anything better?  Not me.  Even after all these years, I can’t.