australian summer

Those lazy, sunny days that seemed to last forever | theage.com.au

MEMORIES seem to like the heat. If there were a competition to see which season conjures the most memories then summer, an Australian summer, would win by miles. By long, hot country miles in the family station wagon with the vinyl seats sticking to your sunburnt skin and the dog slobbering and straining to get its share of the open window and your sister being quietly carsick all over your favourite pet rock.

It's no coincidence that summer and school holidays have traditionally melted into one, like crayons in the sun. The days would get longer and start curling at the edges. The air would fill with insect repellent and bushfire updates. Winter would be just a strange dream. And life itself would be a never-ending afternoon. An afternoon in which things got so bad, entertainment-wise, that watching a blowfly headbutting a roller blind over and over again was actually better than not watching a blowfly headbutting a roller blind over and over again. An afternoon in which everybody but you and your family took off to somewhere else; somewhere impossibly exciting. An afternoon in which pretty much all you could do to pass the time was roam the abandoned streets, bare feet burning on the concrete, peeling the skin off your nose, racking up childhood memories that would come flooding back every summer for the rest of your life. Of course "flood" is the wrong word. It's not so much a flood of memories as an ant trail leading to that Bubble O' Bill ice-cream you bought using every cent of your pocket money, only to watch helplessly as the ice-cream collapsed in the heat, sliding off its stick, down the handlebars of your Malvern Star and on to the sun-softened asphalt, in a lazy swirl of pink and brown. And just as you were about to salvage the hallowed gumball, next-door's dog with the sharp teeth and bad eczema would rush up and scoff it down, ants and all.

Ah, but remember how, if you were lucky, the freezer back at home might still have a few of those frozen-cordial icy poles? The ones in see-through plastic? For emergencies. Which reminds you. The square edges of those things could really cut up the sides of your mouth. Especially if you were eating three of them at once while bouncing on a trampoline. Now, the mere sight of a trampoline reminds you of the mingled taste of blood and green cordial. And, of course, being trampoline-related, there are all those thoughts of twisted ankles and metal springs that bit your bare legs even harder than next-door's dog every time you had to climb the side fence to retrieve your taped-up tennis ball. And how could you forget the time that same dog left a giant poop on your front step? You trod in it, barefoot, while eating a particularly ripe banana and now you can't eat even remotely ripe bananas without bringing back memories of … shudder … anyway, without bringing back memories