NOW AND THEN

The summer season always puts me in a nostalgic mood. Smell is the sense that has the strongest compacity for recall. If I close my eyes and concentrate, I can smell clorine. For me clorine is a very comforting smell. It brings up a hundred different memories inside of me. I recall the carefree days of summer fondly and even now I feel more like a kid than during any other season with the exception of Christmas in the wintertime.
After all it was in the summer that I learned to jump off the diving board into my uncle's arms and consciously thought about trust for the first time. It was in the clorine water that gravity didn't seem to matter when I could float on top of it all and feel a true sense of freedom. The sun mixed with water can result in a pretty nasty sunburn, but it also produces a magical quality.
It's not everyday that a girl learns that she is going to be a big sister for the first time. My Daddy informed me that my stepmother was pregnant and then I raced off to jump in the pool. It was safe in there and maybe subconsciously I knew the birth of my little brother would force me to grow up and I wanted to savor every last minute of my right to be a child.
Just the other day my best friend Heather and I were at the pool. The summer really seems to bring out the kids in us. Now we get in the water when the heat becomes unbearable sitting in our lounges laying out. We gracefully enter the water by the steps on the shallow end of the pool complaining about the temperature of the water and forgetting the days when we made ripple waves doing cannonballs. Our hair is all pulled up on the top of our heads so as not to get clorine in our hair which would diminish its unnatural color, and we wade about all grown up. The days of doing handstands, front, and back flips have long since gone. Suddenly, a bumble bee starts buzzing around Heather's head. She swats at it in an attempt to make it flea, but its no use. It's like Heather decided to wash her hair in honey. The bee kept circling around her head. She was screaming like a little girl and then she ducked under the water. She emerged from the water, her hair all dishevled. I started laughing hysterically inspite of myself. I guess you just had to be there, but it was a hilarious sight. Then the bee came back for round two and decided to take us both on. Our hands went straight up in unison fending off the bee. We both ducked under water as we screamed like scaredy cats. When we surfaced I exclaimed "that was a little girl moment". We couldn't stop laughing at being so juvenile and jovial. It was a great moment. Another great memory to tuck away with the millions of memories that can only be made in the summertime. The greatest part is that I shared yet another memory with my best friend. I think about all the good times I have experienced as a child especially in the summertime every now and then.