Hurricane temperatures are climbing, but if you will check the calendar it is “par for the course” of weather or for the sizzling, summer season as the next 40 or so days from July 3 to August 11 will probably record more record—breaking heat for the entire USA due to the “dog days of summer” as these dates are known. The folklore of our own countryside hamlet had a consensus that dogs often became ill or became mad from the extreme temperatures. By the way, our resident historian, “Pappy Bullard” at the country store explained to me that he went through a series of painful, rabies shots during a summer of the mid-1950’s due to a dog bite. I said that explains the reason that my mom was on “rabies patrol” as my pets were put into lockdown that entire summer. Our home was located to the north of White Road, where the Bullards lived; so, we could not risk that hazard. As all of the school students of HHS reminisce about the school nurse at our reunions, I was always the child hiding underneath the teacher’s desk to avoid immunizations during that visit, or I would go to the restroom and hide there. To make that work, you had to sit on the back of the commode tank; so, the teacher could not see the rigid, white correctional shoes or leather sandals cut from the same mold peeking out from the bottom of the wooden stall. She would get Mr. Jewel Owen to move on to the boys restroom to corral those runaways also.
Life was simple then; so, I obeyed the “rabies patrol” as I hated shots. To evade the school nurse that served all the county schools, you had to be on your “A” game too!
