It’s difficult to believe, but it’s peach season again. We made our journey to Lipe Orchard this morning for a half peck. Peach pie is fine. Peach cobbler is delicious as well. Peaches are a hidden treasure. Peaches remind me that fall is coming.

Volunteers are painting Saulki Paws on the roads leading to Southern Illinois University @ Carbondale. The Sauluki Dog is the Mascot of SIUC. Again, I am reminded of fall. July has under two weeks remaining. We are in the Dog Days, not Saluki Dogs. August is the precursor to the Ber Months, which are my favorite of the year. If I could have three blocks of the Ber Months, I would be complete. I was not a hot weather fan as a kid. I love the falling leaves and hot chocolate with pumpkins and ghost stories. I was raised on Frankenstein and Dracula, The Wolfman, and The Mummy. I liked scary movies that were not really scary. They were ethereal. Many of these movies I saw on the big screen at the Orpheum Theatre. With my dollar from Neva J, I had my fill of popcorn and coke as well as the thirty-five-cent admission fee, and I could stay all day and all evening for that modest admission. Space was portrayed for me and the other ’60s kids by the television show Lost In Space. The unseen world of the TV shows The Twilight Zone and Outer Limits. The Twilight Zone was compelling. Each was a morality play disguised as science fiction.

Summer stands apart in its ability to mold young minds. With no school and endless days of swimming and play, a young mind can seek the mysteries of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island or Jules Vern’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. I fancied myself a writer in those halcyon days, and my cousin Billy Gene as the cinematographer of our own movie. Indeed, we made an eight-millimeter movie of our version of The Creature From The Black Lagoon, replete with my portraying the Creature with a Universal Studios Creature mask and Creature hands. This was exciting stuff. Not everyone was doing such groundbreaking science fiction work.

Pounds Hollow Lake was nirvana. I wondered if other kids had such a lake to swim and float in several times a week. I floated for hours beyond the safety rope. I felt like an explorer. With my ears covered by water, I was in another Aqua World. When I would look up to find Chet and Neva J, and Brenda, they looked like dolls on the beach. I was accustomed to being underestimated by some, but in the Lake, I was master of my domain. I did not brag, but observed that those who did often went to the head of the class.

The saxophone was as delicious as peaches to me. I played the tenor Saxophone in the sixth grade. Mr. Prince told me that I played the best scales that he had ever heard a beginner play. Boots Randolph was my hero. I wore out my long-playing record of Boots playing several tenor saxophone numbers, including Yakety Sax. Yakety Sax is closely identified with the Benny Hill show of the United Kingdom. Yakety Sax was played outside Parliament when Prime Minister Boris Johnson resigned.

Carbondale was the City of Knowledge to me when I was a wee boy in Eldorado. I had watched with joy theatre students from Southern Illinois University @ Carbondale put on theatre performances for the We Eldorado kids. I knew there was something special at SIUC. Now I live in Carbondale and have worked for over 32 years at the University. Soon I will be retired for 15 years. I still think of the saxophone and the Orpheum and most assuredly Pounds Hollow…