SUSAN DROMEY HEETER, Joyful Musings
It’s hot. Sweat dripping down your back hot. Bare feet on the pavement too hot to walk hot. Condensation around iced coffee cups hot. Underwear pasted to your ass hot. The dog not moving for days hot.
And that, dear readers, is why I muse joyfully on my fan club.
Last week, I stopped at a yard sale and found two fans, old school box fans the size of televisions from the 1960s. Each cost two bucks and they have allowed me to sleep in this heat wave, comforted me with jet engine like sounds at night, soothed me with motors from decades ago that still plug on, that comfort with such loudness as to be on a tarmac.
We are not a family of air conditioners or central air. Our butter is always soft; the windows are wide, wide open. We hear our neighbors laugh, sing, turn on their sprinklers, soothe their crying babies. It can be loud, it’s summer; I love it.
And my fans allow us to keep the windows wide, wide open. We’ve had air conditioners before but I’ve never been a fan – no pun intended. I get claustrophobic, feel stuck. But with fans, I adore the simple blowing of hot air. Maybe that is why I love to talk and listen to many a podcast, delight in speeches, adore a lengthy chat on the phone.
For years I had a Volvo station wagon that had no air conditioner. It, literally, was a hot box. Now my Passat wagon has air but I rarely use it; I love the windows open; I am grateful for a sunroof.
My alter ego in any heat wave, is that woman leaning out her window with a housecoat on, a kerchief in her hair, watching passers by as she sweats, as kids play in fire hydrant spray. I love her. I’ve not got a housecoat yet, but my mother had one. These days I wear my bathing suit around the hot house, occasionally stick my ever expanding rear end out and ask my daughters, “Should I be a model?”
It’s hot. But I muse joyfully you feel the heat, sweat and delight in summer, the warmth, the birds, the green, the noise. And if you don’t have your fan club, I invite you to get one.
Stay well, stay safe, stay cool. Muse joyfully on a heat wave.
Susan Dromey Heeter is a writer from Dover who recently let her hair go au natural white. Writing has been her passion since her English majoring days at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. Dromey Heeter has lived in The Netherlands, Alaska and currently basks in all things New England, including the frigid winters. An avid swimmer, Dromey Heeter’s great passion is to bring back body surfing as most children have no idea how to ride waves without ridiculous boogie boards.
The opinions expressed are those of the writer. InDepthNH.org takes no position on politics, but welcomes diverse opinions. email nancywestnews@gmail.com
