Summer

Favorite Summer Reading Places

/ rtrube54 / 2 Comments
Photo by Victoria Rain on Pexels.com

One of the joys of warmer weather is the chance to take one’s reading outdoors. There are a so many places that go well with a book in the summer months. Here are a few that I thought of, and have enjoyed.

Front porches. I grew up in a neighborhood of front porches. Ours had awnings to shade from the afternoon son but were open to catch any cooling breezes. And it was easy to run in the house for a cool iced tea or lemonade.

A bench under a shady tree. We lived near a park with lots of shady areas and conveniently placed benches to make the most of the shade. I’d stick a paper back in a bike bag, go for a ride and find that perfect shady spot.

A hammock. Can you think of a more perfect picture of relaxation? Shade, the hammock perfectly molded to one’s body. The only challenge is staying awake! Better take a thriller with you.

A sidewalk café under an umbrella. Maybe in the cool of the morning with a hot coffee and scone, watching people on their way to work, perhaps reading a newspaper (remember those?) or perhaps a collection of Mary Oliver poetry.

A cabana at the beach. Sure, you can read on a lounge chair in the sun, but when you reach a certain age, you think of all the sand, sun screen, and feeling like you are baking, and a shaded structure to catch the breezes and the glare of the sun on the page makes this an ideal spot at the beach.

On the porch of a cabin by a mountain lake. Getting up early, perhaps with devotional or spiritual literature, listening to the waterfowl and the lapping of the water.

A backyard gazebo. I’ve known a few friends who have them and it can be delightful to slip away to curl up on a bench, take in the view, and lose oneself in a good novel.

The pergola in my backyard in the morning. I spent the mornings of one summer under our pergola reading my way through Calvin’s Institutes in the cool of the morning at a picnic bench with a cup of coffee at hand.

Our air conditioned library on a hot summer afternoon. It isn’t outdoors, but sometimes outdoors is just too hot unless you are in the water. It is a great place to retreat and realize just how many books there are in the world–enough to last a lifetime!

A bookstore with a café. Pick up that new novel or the latest in a mystery series, and head over to the café for an iced drink and get started reading your latest find!

Isn’t it wonderful how many places go well with a book? What are some of your favorites?

Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown — Summer Storms

/ rtrube54 / 2 Comments

thunder-1368797_1920

Photo by Boboshow, CC0 Public Domain

You remember the feel of the air. Sultry. Stifling humidity. Calm. Kind of a funny color to the sky. Rumbles in the distance. An onrush of dark clouds from the west. Sometimes it almost seems like night is descending. There is a sudden freshening of the wind, sometimes from complete calm to almost gale force. Then a brilliant flash, sometimes with almost a hot, hissing sound followed by a tremendous crash of thunder that makes you leap out of your skin. Then you remember, if you heard the thunder, the lightening didn’t hit you. Driving rain, where roads turn into rivers, almost blinding on the windshield, or to someone like me wearing glasses out of doors.

Summer storms. They could be terrifying when you were a kid. I remember one night when I was out with my dad and we arrived home amid a crashing storm. Our garage was detached, about thirty feet from our house. I didn’t want to budge for fear. My dad said “I’ll take care of you.” and sheltered me under his arm as we ran for the house. Only later in life did I realize he couldn’t really protect either of us if lightning had struck. But in the moment I felt safe–and obviously we did make it.

We lived on Portland Avenue, off of Mahoning, about halfway down the hill that runs from Belle Vista to Steel Street, that looks eastward toward downtown and the north and east sides. So storms from the west came from over the hill so we didn’t so much see them coming as heard the rumbles of thunder, and saw the darkening skies. Late in life, my parents lived at Park Vista Retirement Community with windows facing west looking across the valley. We could watch the storms come across the valley toward the north side, an even more awesome sight.

When the storms were coming and you were at home, there was always the mad dash to close the windows, except maybe on the east side of the house so the rain wouldn’t come in. Mom would be very unhappy if rain stained the curtains, and she always worried the lightning could travel along a draft in the house (actually the greatest danger inside the house is talking on a landline phone during a storm–something that may soon be a thing of the past).

When a front was moving through, the storms brought relief from the heat and humidity, and it was refreshing to come outside and find the sky a clear blue as the haze and pollution had been washed from the air. At other times, the storms were of the “pop up” variety when heat and humidity made for unstable air. Usually, if anything, it was worse afterwards when the sun came out and you felt like you were in a steam bath.

We always worried a bit during storms about the big silver maple next door, that it would come crashing into our house during a wind storm. I would stare at it sometimes, trying to figure out if it would fall toward our house. All I know is that it never did, although there were often branches to clean up. Eventually it was cut down. The worst thing that happened was when part of the cherry tree next door fell into our driveway–but there were some ripe cherries on it!

Sometimes the storms would come at night. First you would see the heat lightning but wouldn’t hear anything. Was it really going to storm, or was it just the heat. And sometimes it didn’t as storms went another direction. But sometimes heat lightning was followed by brighter flashes and thunder. You counted the time between the flash and the sound–One-Mississippi–Two Mississippi, etc. Every five seconds was about a mile. And that told you how far away it was. When it got down from five or less, it was definitely time to find shelter (actually we probably should have sooner–lightning can strike from up to 10 miles away and experts say that any time thunder follows lightning within 30 seconds, you should seek shelter).

Storms can be terrifying if you are not in a safe place. But they can also be things of wonder. Driving in a place with a view, and sometimes you can see the arc of lightning across the miles, lighting up the tumultuous clouds. Sometimes, snug in bed during a storm at night, it can be almost cozy, as one sees the flashes, hears the rumbles, and the sound of rain on one’s roof and against the windows.

It was a stormy day today where I live, and it recalled those stormy days of summers past when winds and rains swept across the valley with strikes and arcs of lightning overhead, and thunder echoing from one side of the valley to the other. In those moments, we remembered how small and vulnerable we really were.

Repost: Keeping Cool

/ rtrube54 / 1 Comment

Here’s a post that first appeared as part of my Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown series on how we kept cool before the days of whole-house air conditioning in working class neighborhoods. Enjoy, and perhaps it will bring back memories!

* * * * *

Maybe I’m thinking of this because it is a warm day and I’m grateful for our air conditioner. I’m reminded of the fact that growing up in working class Youngstown, almost none of our homes had air conditioners, so we had to find other ways to keep cool. Here’s ten ways I can think of that we kept cool:

1. Swimming at the local pool. For me it was Borts Pool on the West Side–for others it was Pemberton or North Side. We could get in for a dime for the whole afternoon. If your family was a bit more mobile, places like Yankee Lake or Pymatuming provided relief from the summer heat.

2. Your basement. Most homes had basements that were below ground and were considerably cooler.

3. A movie theater. Back then the theaters often advertised their air conditioning, especially in the summer. An afternoon double-feature, no matter how bad was often a cheap way to buy several hours of cool.

Newport Theater

4. A ride in a convertible with the top down. Yeah, you felt a bit road grimy afterwards, but sailing along with the breeze in your face felt great!

5. Your front porch. Lots of homes had front porches. Our had big green awnings that kept the porch shady all day and bushes on our western exposure to keep out the late afternoon sun. If there was any breeze at all, it was comfortable. Most evenings, that’s where you’d find my folks until the late night news.

6. A big electric fan often kept the house cool at night. Many of the older homes had windows that allow for decent air circulation. In our house, we’d have a fan on that would suck the hot air out a back window, pulling in the night air through the front.

Box fan

7. The DQ, Isaly’s or Handels would at least cool off our mouths.

8. During the day, there were popsicles which did the same thing. Double popsicles were great, except that if you split them and planned to eat both, you had to eat the first really quickly! I always like grape.

Popsicles!

9. Most of the downtown stores were air-conditioned, and there were always Strouss’ malts in their bargain basement!

10. Often while waiting to pick up newspapers for my paper route, we’d hang out at a nearby gas station with a pop machine–one that dispensed bottles. As long as we drank them on site, we didn’t need to leave a deposit–just drop them in the wood trays for the bottling company to pick up.

Air conditioning was a major expenditure that was beyond many of our family’s budgets back then. To replace the old heating systems in most of our homes with a heating and A/C unit would have been costly, and most of our homes weren’t insulated very well and so cooling would be costly. But we still found ways to stay relatively cool.

What were your favorite ways of staying cool?

This post first appeared here on July 26, 2014.

Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown — Front Porches

/ rtrube54 / 26 Comments

The home I grew up in with our front porch. (Photo taken by Carol E Campbell)

The home I grew up in with our front porch. (Photo taken by Carol E Campbell)

The hot weather of the past week brought to mind one of our favorite ways of keeping cool on those warm and muggy summer evenings. We would sit out, often until late in the evening, to catch whatever breeze there was while the house cooled off after sunset.

You see, most of us didn’t have air conditioning back then. Sitting out on the front porch with a cool drink, and maybe some ice cream, was the best way to keep cool. My parents had old-fashioned metal lawn chairs that could rock (we inherited them). I would often sit on the old metal glider, rocking back and forth to keep cool.

We had big green awnings that dad hung each spring to shade the porch from the late afternoon sun. We had spirea bushes in front of the porch that came up just above the banisters and the awnings came most of the way down so that kept the sun out pretty well.

Often, I would have my transistor radio on listening to Herb Score broadcasting the Cleveland Indians games. We always hoped this would be the year they’d win the pennant, and then the World Series. Still hoping.

Everyone sat out on summer evenings. Sometimes you would visit families walking down the street, many walking to the Dairy Queen a block up on Mahoning Avenue. Mostly, the parents would talk–about how hot it was, how good the yard was looking, how work was going, how big the kids were getting. Or we would watch neighbors drive down the street and notice when they got a new car.

As I grew older, I would cross the street and sit on the front steps of my friend Jim’s house and talk with him until his parents told us it was time to call it a night. As it turned out, that was usually when my parents wanted me home. You’d think they conspired with each other. Mostly I remember talking with Jim about cars, sports, and that mystery we both were trying to figure out–girls! (Don’t ask me if we ever did!)

Front porches weren’t just a west side thing (where I grew up). Most homes in the older urban neighborhoods of Youngstown had front porches. My grandparents lived on Cohasset Drive, a beautiful tree-lined street and they had a big front porch with old, comfy porch furniture.

Now everyone has air conditioning and, at least in our area, few houses have front porches. If we ever buy another house, I want a front porch. As it is, whenever it isn’t too hot, we sit out in the drive and enjoy the evening air and visit with people walking by, usually with their dogs. Growing up in a neighborhood of front porches, it just doesn’t seem right hiding out in my house or backyard on a summer evening. But it is different. In Youngstown, I knew the names of every family in the neighborhood. I can’t say that here. We didn’t always have fond thoughts of each other, but we knew each other. That’s what came of growing up on a street lined with houses with front porches.

[Want to read other “Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown” posts? Just click “On Youngstown” on the menu bar at the top of this page to read any or all in this series.]

Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown — Summer Memories

/ rtrube54 / 3 Comments

The last day of school. What a wonderful feeling it was to have what seemed like an endless summer stretching before you. Having celebrated the Fourth of July yesterday with a picnic and fireworks, I thought this might be a good time to think about summers growing up in a working class Youngstown neighborhood.

WHOT day ticket

WHOT Day Pass (courtesy of my wife!)

Probably one of the big differences from what I see so many people doing these days were that most vacations were “stay-cations” before the word was ever invented! No trips to Europe or other exotic faraway places. Vacation might have involved a few days at Lake Milton or Pymatuning, or perhaps a cabin over in Cook’s Forest. Most families didn’t have the resources for more. I remember what a thrill it was when my grandparents took me to Gettysburg and Lancaster, PA! Even trips to Cleveland to see the Indians play or down to Pittsburgh to see the Pirates were a big deal in our family.

Until I was older and more mobile, most days were spent around the neighborhood. Mornings often included chores around the house, or cutting lawns for people in the neighborhood to earn a little spending money. Summer afternoons were often spent in one of several places–my front porch which was shaded by awnings and pretty cool even on the hottest days. If I was alone, I was probably reading one of the books I got from the West Side Library (some things never change!). Sometimes friends and I would pitch baseball cards or have marathon Monopoly games. The other place most of us hung out was Borts Swimming Pool (or Pemberton in my wife’s case). Hardly any of us had air conditioning so it was the best place to cool off, and as the hormones kicked in, to look at all the pretty girls in their bikinis. Only problem–I was terribly near-sighted, and usually left the glasses home or in the baskets we used for our clothes. Sigh!

Sam McDowell (Plain Dealer file photo)

Sam McDowell (Plain Dealer file photo)

Evenings were a good time for a pick up game of baseball down at Washington Elementary’s playground at the end of the street. Only problem as we grew older is that we hit lots of balls over the fence, and sometimes down the freeway ramp to I-680. That was an adventure, trying to recover your ball. Because the playground was asphalt, we usually wore the cover off a ball before long and then it became this black, electrical taped sphere! No umpires, so usually we either fought until someone backed down, or called a “do over.” Once it was dark, it was usually home to the front porch to catch the Cleveland Indians game on my transistor radio. I was a big Indians fan. It was an incredible thrill one year when dad got us box seats behind home plate when “Sudden Sam” McDowell was pitching. I’d never seen a ball thrown that fast and you could feel as well as hear the “smack” of the ball in the catcher’s mitt.

As I got older my friend Jimmy C. and I used to sit on his front steps in the evenings and try to solve the mysteries of life which usually had to do with figuring out girls. Not sure we ever did! Often we would walk up Mahoning Ave to the Dairy Queen, get ice cream cones and hang out for a while with friends. Sometimes we would go up to Borts Field, watching baseball games (and what else) hanging out with girls from the neighborhood trying (and usually failing) to impress them!

Summer highlights were the Fourth of July Fireworks at Idora Park, our in-city amusement park, which closed in 1984 after a disastrous fire destroyed the Wildcat, one of the best coasters in the country, and other park buildings. We usually didn’t go to Idora Park for the display but to “Rocky Ridge”, now know as the James L. Wick, Jr. Recreation Area. From the top ridge of the park, we could see over the trees and get a great view of the display without the traffic. Of course, a summer wouldn’t be complete without a trip to Idora Park. The coasters, the fun house, the french fries under the “rockets” ride, were all great fun. The best day to go was WHOT Day. WHOT was a local radio station that sponsored special discount passes to the park every year. Local bands and national celebrities played there and you could ride the rides all day on the pass.

I could go on and on. I already mentioned the local DQ. There were also trips to Isaly’s for skyscraper cones and when I was older, we would go over to the south side of town for really good home made ice cream at Handel’s. For all I know, I could have run into my wife, unbeknownst to me, because Handels was just down the street from where she grew up. And there were the family picnics at my grandparents. Grandma Trube made the best potato salad and we would get to stay up late in the evening chasing fireflies while the citronella candles kept the mosquitoes away from the grownups.

One thing about summers in working class Youngstown–we never talked about being bored even though the stuff I write about seems pretty ordinary by today’s standards. We made our own fun (and sometimes mischief). Our parents often had to work hard, and so didn’t have lots of time to keep us entertained.  Somehow, that all seemed to work out pretty well. We knew if we got in too much trouble, our folks would hear about it from the neighbors.

Looking back on summer memories has been fun. What were some of your best summer memories, whether you grew up in Youngstown or not?