Mom’s Musings

What are ten things to do when it’s too hot to go outside?
This is the prompt given by Yano this week for Ten on Tuesday.

In the 25+ years that we’ve lived in Northwest Washington State, we’ve had some hot days, even a really warm week, but it’s never been too hot to go outside.

For this one, I’ll have to remember back to my childhood in Phoenix, Arizona. Back when I was a child (I know this makes me sound ancient) it was often as hot inside the house as outside, the only relief being that one wasn’t in the direct sun, and possibly a fan would be blowing, but not to much effect. Few private residences had air conditioning. Instead we had evaporative, or “swamp” coolers which didn’t do much to make the house cooler. Here are some of the things we did when it was too hot to go outside:

• Go shopping at the mall (Ahh! Air conditioning!)
  
• Go to a movie (Again, air conditioning.)
  
• Play in the shade, preferably with a wash tub of water for a “pool” or the sprinkler spraying.
  
• Go swimming at the public pool.
  
• Go for a drive with all the car windows open.
  
• Go on a picnic to a cooler location. For us, this meant heading north towards Flagstaff.
  
• Go play billiards (Air conditioning, and a fun activity).
  
• Be as quiet as possible in the house, perhaps reading, playing checkers, or playing cards.
  
• Don’t cook. Eat a big salad, or go out to an air-conditioned pizza parlor for dinner.
  
• For those of you currently suffering from the heat, consider a vacation to the Pacific Northwest. You must especially see the Washington, Oregon, and Northern California coasts. Think of the cooling ocean breezes. It’s truly refreshing!
  

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 29th, 2008 at 12:38 pm and is filed under Fun Things, Memories, Ten on Tuesday. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.