June's acomin'

June symbols, like the moonstone birthstone and the rose for June, are not what I think of when I think of June. I think of the beginning of summer.

I remember the hot days and warm nights in my home town. June wouldn't yet be as hot as July and August would be, but it would average 92 degrees daytime and 62 degrees nighttime. What pops into my mind is the George Gershwin song and a bug. The song is Summertime with it's slow sorrowful tune. It reminds me of those lazy days of summer when school had just finished.


Summertime,
And the livin' is easy
Fish are jumpin'
And the cotton is high


They grow cotton in my home town, so that fits! As a kid, my sister and I almost always went barefoot; I remember bee stings, when we didn't wear rubber flip flops, as we ran thru the clover; and splashing in the puddles left by the sprinkler.


But the nights were the best! It would cool off and we would sit on the back porch and watch the June bugs fly into and bounce off the porch light! (For those who don't know, June bugs are a little brown beettle about and inch long.) They would fly crazy, I don't know if they were blinded by the light or what, but they'd hit the light or the wall or the screen door and fall to the cement patio floor. Then they would buzz around on their backs trying to right themselves. Being kids, we'd pick them up and put them in a jar or pitch them back into the air to watch them fly! As kids, we knew that June bugs meant summer was here and school was out!