Summer in the City

"Hot Town, Summer in the City," Loving Spoonful's August 1966 hit song still sizzles in my synapses all these years later.  I was  just a teen ager.  Pimple faced junior at Viscount Alexander junior high school. I was certainly a virgin.  Winnipeg summer was hot.

"Hot Town, Summer in the City
Back of my neck getting dirty and gritty
Been down, isn't it a pity
Doesn't seem to be a shadow in the city

All around, people looking half dead
Walking on the sidewalk, hotter than a matchhead

But at night it's a different world
Go out and find a girl
Come-on, come - on and dance all night
Despite the heat it will be all night."

Us kids were sneaking out of bedrooms to gather late at night to sneak into the public outdoor pool behind the cop shop. Reputations were being made for daring.  Can't remember who drove the bicycle off the high board. But that brought the police. Ending our nightly summer dip.  Dozens of kids dispersing like cockroaches at high speed across the Vincent Massey football fields.  Fort Garry police in full tilt boogie pursuit..

We'd started dancing then.  There were the sock hops at school. Dan Donahue was our school's John Sebastian singer musician.  Summer time street dances.  Lucky kids went out the beaches.  We were doing the monkey and the jerk.  I remember I was really good at the jerk.  And the swim, holding one's nose and jumping.  Now that was dancing. Line dancing mostly.

All the guys were in love with the red heads, Carey and Kathy.  Naturally they had older boyfriends with motorcycles, while we were still riding bicycles.  My girlfriend was a different dark haired Kathy.  I was head over heels in puppy love with her.  We'd danced in her basement.  Not all night by any means.  Curfews for us kids in 66 were 10 o clock. Midnight was witching hour.

John Sebastian was 10 years older than us kids. He's in his 70's now.  We're just kids  in our 60's. We didn't start dancing all night till 10 years after the song came out, when we were in our 20's like Sebastian when he wrote the song.  Dancing all night was something one did in one's 20's.  Now I'm back to curfews.  10 o clock is late and Midnight is the witching hour.  I read somewhere that John  Sebastian's still performing.  He probably dances all night still.  But then  he's immortal.

"Cool town, evening in the city
Dressing so fine and looking so pretty
Cool cat, looking for a kitty
Gonna look in every corner of the city.:

Now, it's "Hot Town, Summer in the City"  in Vancouver.  What was normal for Winnipeg is unusual here in Rain City Vancouver. My girlfriend's a grandmother. Her apartment doesn't have air conditioning. I've got air conditioning.  She says she likes me for myself. I know better.  These older gals go for the guys with the air conditioning.

At 7 am I ran a mile or so with the dog, along the river trail.  It was heating up by 8.  I swam laps in the indoor pool before the place became wall to wall children.   All afternoon we lay around inside, under the air conditioning,  reading novels.  I had Orson Scott Card's latest post Ender's Game science fiction.    It was just like we did as teens in Winnipeg.  Missing the heat of the summer day,  reading inside in the cool.
I barbecued steak later.  Didn't want to heat up the kitchen with the stove.  Microwaved the pees and potatoes.  Watched an Apple TV movie "Ex Machina".Sentient robots.   Great movie, really. Hitchcockesque.
After we walked the dog down by the river again.  It was still hot, sultry now.    We slept with the sheets off, air conditioner turned off, windows open.   Dog on bed.  I never had a thought of dancing all night.

Hot town, summer in the city.