July In Our Neck O’ The Woods

Pierre Fontenot Thursday, July 21, 2016 Comments Off on July In Our Neck O’ The Woods
July In Our Neck O’ The Woods

In June kids, teachers and parents are still transitioning from the end of school, but you cross over into July, and something changes; summer gets settled and official. July is the most casual of months. We dress like natives, and brown up those winter feet. Oh, it’s a hot month, but we’re not seriously wilted, like we will be in August, so we’re still full of gonna-do, gonna-do, which August will turn into do-I-have-to, do-I-have-to… We wake up perky in July, like summer is Christmas, with sunshine replacing snowfall.

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Nature Rules July

We re-appreciate our trees in July. It’s not mentioned in the book of Genesis but I don’t think God would mind if I added something left out, …and verily, He didst maketh the acorn, foreknowing our need for shade… Water is a fine friend in July. We drink camel humps of water all month. When we’re not drinking it we’re playing in it. We fish in it, boat in it, swim in it. We often leave the here water and go away, to admire the elsewhere water. This is a month when city people act like farmers, looking at the clouds several times a day. July bakes its own rain. It sizzles that moisture up and up and up, and when a cloud gets nice and bottom heavy, the bottom falls out. Air thick with humidity, and then clouds to the west, with dark bottoms, here comes the breeze, like the Paul Revere of weather, the whip crack of thunder, the white sword of lightning, and the great drenching…ah, that’s a July thunderstorm in the south…and if you’re a kid, there’s no better playing than when the rain is over, and the ditches are thick, and it’s so late in the day that who-cares-if-you-get-dirty, so you race stick boats and leaf boats down the backyard current.

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The Going And The Being

July is a time to porch sit, holding a sweating glass of iced tea, remembering our grandmother’s bright colored aluminum glasses, remembering the way Momma made sweet tea, shoveling that sugar, back when we were all Olive Oyl skinny and Popeye strong. July is a month for making memories. That’s what parents think, when they’re making vacation plans. It’s been a day or so since I was a kid, and yes, I remember a few vacations, but what I treasure most about childhood was the little everyday stuff. I didn’t know I had it so good, until I grew up, and the What Was turns into the What Is. There are a few pictures of our family July’s, but nothing like what’s saved between my ears… In April and May we were all Adam ‘n Eve-ing, turning our yards and planters into our bless-our-hearts-for-trying versions of Eden. In July the happy plants are plenty happy, but need our help with the faucet and the hose. July is a month to get stuff done. Folks ‘round here, we know what we know: all that honey-do stuff that sounded fun in April is about to get seriously un-fun in August, so it’s July, or die.

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It’s A Measuring Month

Even people with nothing to say have something to say in July. “This heat…” and just shut up and let other people finish the sentence. July is a month where many men have been at work since 7AM, sweat drenched by 10, and they’ll keep pounding the labor as the sun keeps pouring the heat. I’ve been that guy. I’d like to think I still have it in me. As for proving it, let’s just keep it theoretical. July is the month I stand beneath the shower nozzle, O luxury of plumbing… and I think back on hearing the old folks talk about their every Saturday bath, and I think, O my, could I?…

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On A Serious Note

France became France in the year 481. (Stay with me…) Spain has been Spain since 1479. Vatican City became official in 1274. Those seem so old, don’t they, but they’re just youngsters by world history. Afghanistan has been around since 1500BC. China is dated to 1800BC. Seems old, and then you go to Iran, which dates all the way back to 3200BC. This is 2016 and America is only 240 years old. America was born in July. There had never been anything like America – ever – in the history of the world. As I age and understand the smallness of human nature I only grow to appreciate our founding fathers all the more; for the first time in the history of government, the Haves risked life and fortune for the Have Nots. Four score and seven July’s later, this precious toddler of a nation was about to break apart. In the first week of July, 1863, a battle for the future of America was fought in the sleepy fields near a little town called Gettysburg. The blue team won, which changed the war, which changed America, which changed the world. I salute July, and its most famous baby, the United States of America. As gifts of grace get measured, being born an American is Way Up There.

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This edition of Uncle P’s Bedtime Stories is brought to you by Eighty-one, where every day is a good day and all the months have consonants and vowels. Uncle P can be reached at 81creativity@gmail.com.

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