My mama was a cool old lady, but she had her oddities.
She would sit outside in the middle of summer.
It would still be ninety degrees in the shade, and she would have her sweater on. I would watch her sit in her porch rocker and spend hours just looking out at the mountains, and smiling. I often wondered what she was smiling at. I couldn’t believe it was because she was comfortable. Everyone else would be inside the house with the air conditioning. Mama grew up when air conditioning wasn’t as readily available as it is now. Maybe she was thinking of her childhood when she and my dad would be outside with the rest of the kids. She always talked about how they would ride bikes to the park. She said they would have weenie roasts out in the field. They didn’t have air conditioning to keep them hidden away in the house. They braved the weather and learned how to enjoy life and all that it offered. I sat outside with her often. The one time, I threw a shirt over my shoulders so I didn’t get sunburned. The shirt actually worked as a barrier from the heat. Maybe it is so odd that she would sit outside with a thin sweater, rather than be inside with the air conditioning. It made it more comfortable. This past summer, I sat outside on the porch thinking about my mom and how she would have enjoyed looking out over the mountain. I thought about our long chats, and I realized the sound of the AC unit just took away from the melody of her voice, and I missed her.