THE KNEES OF SUMMER

Do you remember having knees like this? It brings back some great summer memories for me. My knees still look a little like this, but that is another story, and it probably involves cleaning. Or being clumsy. Or stairs. If I close my eyes, I can still smell the fresh cut grass and hear the distant buzz of the lawnmowers all over our neighborhood. I can hear the voices of my friends as we played freeze tag for the zillionth time in our front side yard (the size of a regulation baseball field--I had it so rough). I can taste the carrots pulled directly out of the garden dirt, wiped off on my shorts, and maybe--if a parent happened to be watching--rinsed off with the garden hose. I have not, since my childhood, tasted a carrot, radish, or peas as delicious as those were. I can smell the hamburgers and hot dogs grilling on the barbecues, and picture all the dads out back (we had no fences) watching the kids play while they grilled. Here's to summer, to the all the great memories, and of course, to the knees of summer. Ah, to be a kid again.