Summer's winter...by Mary Hazlett

So most of us are experiencing that dreaded HOT summer.  Triple digits is to be expected and is in fact fairly normal for this time of year.  I have often thought that I was a lizard and the more heat the better...that was until I moved to Chandler, Arizona.

Dad, Mom, Ryan and me lived in Arizona which by the calendar was a short summer, but in reality  seemed extraordinarily long.  I often heard the "locals" telling me that we moved down just in time for the summer's winter.  I would smile and whisper under my breath, "They don't know winter....come to Idaho".  

June soon rounded the corner and the temperatures were reaching upper 90's.  I was loving it.  I tried to convince my parents that this was the best place in all America to be for the summer.   Some of the most odd features in Arizona are the small patches of lawn around the houses (which we had a mower with an electric cord... would have been ridiculous is our lawn was not just 3 feet by 6 feet).  Everything...I mean everything has thorns or horns.  I tried to prune a small palm tree in our backyard and I looked liked I had chicken pox all over again.  Golf carts are a regular mode of transportation.  There are Walgreens on every corner and you are just plain weird if you don't have a pool.

Well, the 90 degree days turned into 100 degree days which then turned into 115 degree days.  We had our air conditioner break down on a weekend and so most of the evening we spent outside in the 105 degree air because it was cooler out there than in the house.  YIKES...okay Mom and Dad you win!  This is getting miserable. It wasn't until the beginning of August that I realized what a summer's winter meant.  

Although we spent only a short time there, I gained a great appreciation for Idaho and its summers.   While living down there, we all got the opportunity to visit the museum for the Superstition Mountains and the legend about the Dutchman and his gold.   It was there that I found in the souvenir shop the perfect shirt to epitomize Arizona:   On it there is a Papa Devil and a Little Devil standing in the fires of Hell and the Papa is pointing to the little one with these words written in his quote bubble. "You better shape up son or I will send you to Arizona".   

On this hot Monday, just remember...you could be in Arizona!

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