Memories of Warm Days
by Geography
Just in around
1pm today, snow flurries were confirmed at the Jacksonville International
Airport. It's significant news for the
Jacksonville area, as you can imgine, this type of weather event is rare in
this part of Florida.
Me and the girls, Maddie and Morgan, are having a snow day,
without the snow.
It’s raining and very cold outside, we are home, cozy and warm
and definitely looking forward to the sunshine forecast for Friday and Saturday. I’ve been thinking back on a few memories this morning of
warmer days and/or warm experiences.
Atlanta, Georgia
The hottest I’ve even been was in a hot yoga class I tried once, when
I lived in Atlanta. The heat was manufactured, created by machines and it was
not good.
My body temp was so high, I got a surprise nosebleed. I had to go home
and take a long, long, cold shower to bring my body
temperature down.
Not a wonderful memory; certainly it qualifies as the
hottest I’ve even been. It was not good !
Barstow, California
In the height of the summer, Barstow has average
temperatures of 100 to 110 degrees in July and August. That type of intense heat was certainly a
learning process, not something we experienced prior to moving to Barstow from
Panama in August of 1970. You could
definitely cook an egg on the hot asphalt, we tried it several times as kids. The
very hot days were even hotter as the heat is dry.
Accra, Ghana
Sleeping in a small cement room with a tin roof in Ghana, (in
the MOP volunteer quarters), when there was no electricity and the fans didn’t’
work, that was hot. It was the kind of heat that kept you awake, anticipating
LIGHTS ON, as they say in Ghana. I
anticipated and hoped minute by minute that the electricity would come back on,
sometimes it did and it was wonderful. Sometimes there was no electricity for
days and you had to manage heat that was everywhere. It caused everything to
slow down, walking, moving, breathing. I
consumed copious amount of water and that always helped. Average temps during the hot days in Ghana, mid to upper 90*s with humidity.
Accra, Ghana
Teaching the 1st graders outside on the porch when
I was in Ghana in Oct, Nov, and part of December in 2013. I remember asking the
children right before lunch to be very quiet so we could hear and welcome the whispers of wind on the patio of Ceci’s
home where we had school. That very
still and intense heat caused beads and beads of sweat. The children were used to it, they never
seemed to be hot. And many times in the still of the afternoon we indeed heard and welcomed the whispers of breeze.
Cancun, Mexico
My favorite memories of warm days, swimming in beautiful, blue, clear, crystal waters of the ocean.
Some of my favorites places I visited over the years, Cancun before
it was Cancun. I was there when I was 16 years old. I went with my Uncle Dick
and his family. It was 1974 when Cancun had one hotel, the El Camino Real. The water and the sand – like a postcard.
Buccanneer’s Creek, Martiquine
I was at a Club Med on the island of Martinique, when I was
in my early twenties. One side of the
resort had a lagoon of sorts that was the ocean. I could swim underwater with
goggles, the depth of the water 4 to 5 feet, for hundreds of yards. It was like
a private ocean swimming pool. The heat in Martinique was tropical, necessary, healthy.
Taboga Island, Panama
My dear friend, Angelica Patterson’s family had a summer
home on Taboga Island in Panama. During summer school vacations, I was invited
to go to Taboga with Angelica and her family. At Taboga Island as kids
we wanted and welcomed heat. We were in bathing suits most of the day, it was
so much fun. The Patterson's house was right on the water, they had an amazing shaded wooden patio balcony with large cloth hammocks, the siestas in the warm breezy afternoons at the water’s
edge were perfect.
Flying with Delta
A few times I’ve been on Delta flights and for reasons they
never can explain, the AC is not working in the section of the airplane where
I am sitting. My most vivid memory on a
flight from Atlanta to Phoenix, I was traveling to Arizona to visit my dear
friend, Marilyn Sward. The air was so dry in the section of the plane I was in,
I lost my voice when I got to Phoenix. I literally could not speak for the
first few days I was with Marilyn. I
wrote an email to Delta with all the details. I can’t remember the exact details of
their customer experience gesture, I remember getting an apology and frequent
flyer miles.
Chagres River, Panama
One of my all time favorite memories, visiting and spending a day with the Embera Indians in Panama. Some of the Embera's live on the Chagres River about 90 minutes outside of Panama City. On this particular excursion we took a hike to some nearby waterfalls close to where the Embera's have their village. While most everyone in our group swam in the river, I took a nap next to the Chagres, the heat and sun this day PERFECT.
