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speaks ill of a Democrat and vice versa, we wash their mouths out with soap. If they act like children, then they ought to be constrained to endure that old-fashioned foullanguage remedy.

Despite the heat that envelopes our state, the mountains are cool and the coastal ocean breezes invite you in. Remembering this makes you pine for the voices of Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald singing “Summertime.”

“Summertime, and the livin’ is easy, “Fish are jumpin, and the cotton is high, “Oh, your daddy’s rich and you ma is good-lookin’, “So hush, little baby, don’t you cry.”

George Gershwin composed that tune for the 1935 opera Porgy and Bess with lyrics by DuBose Heyward, which describes a peaceful, lazy summer.

Growing up, I remember that on the hottest days—without air conditioning to count on—we could repair to the pecan orchard in our back yard, relax under the shade of the cluster of the trees, and escape the sun’s burning rays. Those were laidback times. And a good book in a peaceful setting always makes the summer’s heat more tolerable.

Signing off, I’m here to say, I have already begun to pray for rain. A few well-placed rain showers between now and Labor Day will make living easy in the forthcoming summertime— even if we must wait till fall to catch a few trout.