I am a dislocated warm weather guy. So, I usually have a lot to complain about with the fluky, upper Midwest, Great Lakes-influenced weather where I live. Just one “problem”, it has been a lovely spring, which is unheard of around here.
In our area, there are scads of free outdoor concert series. Each town has a weekly, concert in the park and Kenosha, Wisconsin has a least five regular summer outdoor concert series, which we enjoy attending as often as we can.
The Kenosha Pops Concert Band performs weekly at the Sesquicentennial Band Shell in Pennoyer Park right on the shore of Lake Michigan. It is an amazing setting with blue hairs digging the tunes of yesteryear, children playing just down the terrace, kids on the beach, and people bicycling and jogging by, who often stop to take in a little of the music. There is cheap soda and popcorn at the refreshment stand and lots of room if you want to walk around. It is great place to visit with friends or read a book. Essentially, it is Americana Summertime…. free, family oriented, fun that has been going on for over eighty years.
Last Wednesday, the band played, “Smoke Gets in My Eyes” and a 60-something-year-old-man got up out of his lawn chair, extended a hand to his wife and they started dancing on the grass… and I almost started crying. It was a touching moment.
This will sound weird, but I sort of like humidity. Maybe, it is because it doesn’t really happen around here much. Maybe, it is because where I grew up we had a lot of it. Maybe, it is because I don’t live with it on a daily basis.
I love heading south and getting out of the car and feeling a strange, new density in the air. Old river towns seem to be humid, like Hannibal and St. Joseph, Missouri, where I grew up. Okay, it can get oppressive. We once visited Lafayette, Louisiana in August. There you need gills to breathe. Savannah, Georgia is almost as bad. There is a reason that the city has all of those beautiful squares with statues, huge live oaks, fountains, and benches… you need to sit down and cool off a while. But the place is loaded with character and humidity is part of that character.
Things are growing like crazy around here. I picked some blackberries yesterday and soon we will have tomatoes and jalapeños, which is way earlier than common. I am even enjoying my grass which is having a comeback year.
It is a good thing to get away from the computer, walk outside and enjoy the lawn, the produce, music, and even, the humidity.
Originally posted June 25, 2010.
