HOT ENOUGH to FRY PICKLES

"Hot weather opens the skull of a city, exposing its white brain, and its heart of nerves, which sizzle like the insides of a light bulb.And there exudes a sour extra-human smell that makes the stone seem flesh-alive, webbed and pulsing.." - Truman Capote

"Hot enough to fry pickles ...." was a favourite saying of my mother's in the summer.

Though I think we never did fry pickles. Just eggs. And they ended up more runny than anything. Sally, the lab from across the street, who came to visit,  always ended up lapping up the leftovers. 

My mother's hot weather solution was to rinse her hair with white vinegar. Then she's rinse mine with vinegar. Then she'd slap on mayonnaise as a conditioner. I felt like a Caesar salad.

Some of those hot summer days , and yes, there were some, she  would try and beat the heat in other ways. At the edge of the driveway, under the willow tree, she's set up shop. So the neighbours could see. And they always saw. They would wave.

There were endless jello popsicles. My mother made them almost every day. Problem is, they would half ways melt between the freezer and the willow tree. So, you'd smell like mayonnaise, vinegar and  have jello popsicles melting all over your hands. Win win all round.

My mother decided drinking scalding hot tea was the answer to cooling down.  As hot as possible. 

Then she would take a large metal basin, the kind her mother used to wash laundry in, place it in the shade under the willow tree, near the edge of the driveway,  and fill it with cold water from the hose.

She'd dump in as many ice cubes as could be scavenged from the freezer. Sometimes she would make a ring of ice in a jello mold.

If she had any  chammomile, she'd toss it  into the basin.  Then she'd take a chair, under that willow tree,  and plunk her bare feet into the mix.

For good measure she place sliced cucumbers over her eyes, cradling a teacup of hot tea, with her vinegar washed hair, with mayo and she's sit like that for ages. I frequently had to replace the ice or the tea. We'd wave at the neighbours across the lane.

One day she invited my violin teacher  over . On a really hot July day. And over she came. Expecting high tea, no doubt. 

Instead my mother  met her outside  with vinegar, popsicles, and ice cubes. 

And the two of them stuck their feet in the ice water, put cucumbers on their eyes, drank hot tea and ran vinegar over their wrists. My teacher stopped short of washing her hair in vinegar, or the mayo dressing.

Then they ate jello popsicles, even though they were all goopy and melting.

"Hot enough to fry pickles, isn't it? " My mother said. They waved at the post man when he cut thru the yard. He must have jumped 10 feet. Okay, five feet, when he saw them. My mother offered him a popsicle. He actually took it before heading up the hill to finish his route.

Sally  the lab came by that day. They fed her  leftover cucumber slices and  let her sit in the basin with the ice.

They smelled like a salad. They laughed a great deal. They were silly. It was nice. Really so nice. A wonderfully  silly hot day.

Photographs 2021