My cat and I are sitting here enjoying the cool evening breeze. I don't know which one of us gets more excited when we can finally emerge from the hermetically sealed world of air conditioning (an absolute must have in Florida), and open up all the doors and windows.
I love having the doors and windows open. It reminds me of childhood, growing up in a small working class neighborhood a stone's throw from downtown Washington, DC.
The post WWII houses did not have central air conditioning, so windows were opened once the weather grew warmer. You got a glimpse of everyone's lives in those days.
Perhaps you would hear the sound of silverware clinking, hear the murmur of conversation around the table, and smell the pot roast wafting through the screened windows of someone's dining room.
Maybe you saw the soft glow of a lamp and a teenager's head bent over a book at his desk in his bedroom. Or caught a glimpse of a small child being carried through the living room, fresh from her bath, as she gets her goodnight kiss from Daddy.
I sometimes wish I lived in a climate where I did not have to run the air conditioning for seven months of the year, but even if that were the case I don't believe it would be the same. People don't want to sit on their stoops or even get to know their neighbors. We would rather hole up in our hermetically sealed homes, shut the blinds, and interact with our Facebook friends.
Today I'm grateful that I can listen to the crickets, the frogs, and the birds through my open windows, at least for a little while.
I love having the doors and windows open. It reminds me of childhood, growing up in a small working class neighborhood a stone's throw from downtown Washington, DC.
The post WWII houses did not have central air conditioning, so windows were opened once the weather grew warmer. You got a glimpse of everyone's lives in those days.
Perhaps you would hear the sound of silverware clinking, hear the murmur of conversation around the table, and smell the pot roast wafting through the screened windows of someone's dining room.
Maybe you saw the soft glow of a lamp and a teenager's head bent over a book at his desk in his bedroom. Or caught a glimpse of a small child being carried through the living room, fresh from her bath, as she gets her goodnight kiss from Daddy.
I sometimes wish I lived in a climate where I did not have to run the air conditioning for seven months of the year, but even if that were the case I don't believe it would be the same. People don't want to sit on their stoops or even get to know their neighbors. We would rather hole up in our hermetically sealed homes, shut the blinds, and interact with our Facebook friends.
Today I'm grateful that I can listen to the crickets, the frogs, and the birds through my open windows, at least for a little while.
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