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Almost there and getting to Z...

Q = Quiet Maybe it’s the heat and the sun that lead to a slower pace; yet, there is a certain quiet to the season of summer. We slow down. We vacation. We sit on the beach and on deck chairs and just are. We go near water and watch. We spend time on rocking chairs and lounges on our porches. The early morning sun wakes us gently and with coffee in hand we sit on the deck and watch the soft light of a new day unfold to the tunes of birdsong. The quiet of summer renews us.

R = Raspberry picking My brother Mark would bring in a handful of ripe black raspberries --- the sign that over on the creek hill there would be bushes full of ripe berries just right for the picking. The next day we would take the clean coffee cans made into berry buckets and cross the road, go down the path and cross the creek and walk up the river hill and there divide ourselves between bushes bursting with black raspberries. We would pick our buckets full, pausing frequently for the random raspberry taste test. With three or more full buckets we would trek home and bring in our summer harvest. Mom would express her delight and wash the berries. Some were frozen and with others she would make a homemade black raspberry pie. For me, there was not a finer summer treat than hot, homemade, raspberry pie topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

S = Sleeping Out The warm temperatures and in a time when I knew no one who had a thing called air conditioning and because there was rarely anywhere I had to be the next morning, I enjoyed the occasion of sleeping out. Sometimes, my brothers would set up the tent in the side yard and I would gather my sleeping bag and pillow and sleep out….of course, at least one of my brothers had to join me because it was a little frightening….even though I was less than 25 yards from the house….still there were raccoons and woodchucks lurking in the night. I also remember going to my friend’s house and sleeping out in the back of her family pick-up truck. We watched the stars, ate cheese popcorn, drank Mountain Dew and laughed and talked until the wee hours of the morning.

T = Tennis I adored Chris Evert. I would stay up late and watch the Wimbledon update to catch an interview. She was part of the reason I took up the sport. My oldest brother, John, and I would play at the courts in New Kensington. The old joke that in tennis “love means nothing” was never truer than when John and I played…..it wasn’t a match, it was a war. When we played the folks on the courts next to us would leave. It was a bit intense.

U = UV Rays I am of the age (it’s the Maam stage of life) where I find myself frequently saying, “When I was a kid we didn’t worry about ____________! As a kid growing up and spending huge amounts of time outside in the summer, I do not recall all the fuss and worry over UV Rays and if we had sun block it was probably a SPF rating of 10. Yet, I do realize that as science and our knowledge advances that we learn and we adjust. It’s important to be careful out there --- wear the ball cap, put on the SPF 30 sunscreen and take care of you.

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