Why it is so hot.....................you can fry an egg!

We've been having rather hot weather the past few days 100+ but  we had a welcomed thunderstorm this morning and it has cooled things off to the mid 90's.  When I was a kid I was oblivious to the weather.  As long as it wasn't lightening outside we were out playing no matter what the temperature was.  Sometimes the hotter the better.  I remember our science experiment of 1959 when we cooked an egg on the driveway.  I guess the biggest reason we were not bothered by the heat was that we were acclimated to it.  Most of us didn't have central air conditioning back then so it didn't matter if you were inside or out.  I remember at my best friend's house they would put a fan behind a huge block of ice and that was their cooling system.  All the kids would get a salt shaker and sprinkle salt on the ice and then sit in front of the ice block and lick away. 

I miss the sounds of the summers of my youth.  Every night there were neighbors sitting outside and kids laughing and playing or waiting for the DDT man to come down the street spraying for mosquitoes.  It is a wonder that we are not a generation of adults glowing in the dark as a result of running in the fog behind the DDT truck.  I remember I just loved the smell....but our parents would yell at us to get out of it and not breathe it but we did it anyway.   All summer we would play kick-the-can after dark or hide and go seek.  We didn't go inside until our parents called us in.  

But, now I seldom hear children playing outside.  Their little lives are as scheduled as business executives.   I guess they are never home to play.  I just wonder if they are having the opportunity to explore and build their own imaginations.  If someone is always organizing your activities for you how do you learn to entertain yourself?  I'm just curious.