Solstice schmolstice – it’s summer when it’s hot and humid

by Denny Banister

Summer is upon us, officially the period of time from the summer solstice to the autumnal equinox, this year June 21 and September 22 respectively. The solstice is when the sun has no apparent northward or southward motion, and the equinox is when the length of daylight and nighttime hours are the same.

Most of us do not recognize the seasons by an equinox or solstice however. When we wear windbreakers at dusk, it’s autumn; when the furnace kicks on during the daytime, it’s winter; when we want to be outside all day but cannot because of our itchy eyes, runny nose and constant sneezing, it’s spring; and when it’s muggy, hot and humid, it’s summer.

During my childhood, known to paleontologists as P.A.C. (the Pre-Air Conditioning Age), we did not hide from summer – we couldn’t. We had to sweat summer out, day and night. St. Louis in the summer is often brutal. Shade is not nearly as cool and refreshing when it is the result of a steel and concrete office building blocking sunlight from reaching the asphalt as it is from willow trees blocking sunlight from the grassy area by a brook.

None-the-less, summers P.A.C. were celebrated. School was out, and regardless of the heat we kids were outside from morning to supper time playing baseball, riding bikes and squirting each other with water from the garden hose.

It was a time of picnics, family vacations and lemonade. We would go to see the Cardinals or the Browns play, and summer always meant spending long weeks visiting my grandparents in Kansas City.

Summer nights were frequently so hot and humid we resorted to sleeping in our underwear on the floor of the front porch. When we could afford an ice cream from Velvet Freeze we were never turned away because we were barefoot and shirtless.

Now we have air conditioning to keep us cool and comfortable all summer long, but it also keeps us inside. Many modern houses don’t even have real front porches – they are no longer needed. Most youngsters still play games during the summer, but they are playing computer games inside where it is air conditioned, not baseball on vacant lots.

Don’t get me wrong, I am just as spoiled as the next person when it comes to the comforts provided by air conditioning, and am not suggesting we do away with it. Between June and September, however, most of us now spend our time indoors, and we have air conditioning to both thank and blame.

(Denny Banister, of Jefferson City, Mo., is the assistant director of public affairs for the Missouri Farm Bureau, the state’s largest farm organization.)