My mom says I was covered in a heat rash the first couple of months of my life. I still feel the same about the heat! One of my earlier memories is of walking barefoot, hopping from patch of grass to patch of anything green to keep from burning my feet. We never had a swimming pool but spent many hours playing in the sprinkler. It seems I spent my childhood in shorts, barefooted and consuming mass quantities of Popsicles.
By August, the days were not only hot but humid. In the middle of the afternoon, my sister and I would stretch out on the floor of the living room, close the curtains and turn on television. We'd watch Movie Matinee which played the old movies from my mom's teen years. Those old movies and my mom's stories of her early years in Phoenix were the inspiration for my book, Honey On White Bread.
Many August nights, the monsoons would roll in. First the smell of wet mesquite bush and dust would fill the air as thunderheads built in the distance. They would migrate over the city, boiling pink and purple in the setting sun. My dad and I would sit in the back of his pick up and watch the lightening until the rain came. Drove Mom crazy since she was frightened by lightening.
Did you know you can fry an egg on the hood of a car in Phoenix in the summer? It's true. Can't turn the heat up much higher than August in Phoenix.
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