It was so hot in Northwest Ohio that farmers were feeding ice to chickens

It's difficult to watch the sun rise later and set earlier these days, another indication these wonderful days of summer are coming to an end. As we all know, this summer was a mixture of weather conditions; rain early and then hot and dry. Fortunately there were only a few days when the temperatures became unbearable.

During those days it was so hot in Northwest Ohio the robins used pot holders to pull worms out of the ground.

Here in Fulton County, where plenty of wonderful potatoes are grown, it was so hot they cooked underground. All you had to do for a fast lunch was to pull one out, add butter, salt and pepper, and enjoy.

In Sandusky County is was so hot farmers were feeding their chickens crushed ice to keep them from laying hard boiled eggs.

In Ottawa County it was so hot the cows were giving evaporated milk.

In Lorain County it was so hot that wilting shrubbery began whistling for the dogs.

Closer to Lake Erie, particularly on the islands, visitors ate hot chilies to cool their mouths and boaters at the marina at Put-In-Bay were making instant sun tea.

My girlfriend and I took a ferry over to that island one hot Saturday. When we returned to the Jet Express parking lot in Port Clinton we burned our fingers on the door handles and found the seat belts could be used as branding irons... ouch! I quickly discovered the best parking area is determined by the shade, not by the distance.

We spent an afternoon driving in the Bellevue, Oak Harbor and Marblehead areas and became sunburned through the car windows.

And during those hot days of late July some folks in Wauseon and Delta noticed that even though students were on their summer break, at noon few could be found outdoors, except for our hardy paper carriers. One of our thoughtful carriers, a youngster who likes delivering a route on a bike, was concerned he might fall off and end up lying on the pavement.

"I don't want to cook to death," he complained, adding "you know, when it's really hot the asphalt turns to a liquid state!"

Resigning from adulthood

Uncovered from my file of interesting observations is this one, written by Robert Jentzsch. I'm not sure who the writer is, but he makes a good point for resigning from adulthood"

"To Whom it May Concern:

I am hereby officially tendering my resignation as an adult. I have decided I would like to accept the responsibilities of an eight-year-old again. I want to go to McDonald's and think that it's a four star restaurant. I want to sail sticks across a fresh mud puddle and skip stones across the pond.

I want to think M&Ms are better than money because you can eat them. I want to play dodgeball at recess and paint with watercolors in art. I want to lie under a big oak tree and run a lemonade stand with my friends on a hot summer's day.

I want to return to a time when life was simple. When all you knew were colors, multiplication tables, and nursery rhymes, but that didn't bother you, because you didn't know what you didn't know and you didn't care. All you knew was to be happy because you were blissfully unaware of all the things that should make you worried or upset.

I want to think the world is fair. That everyone is honest and good. I want to believe that anything is possible.

Somewhere in our youth, we matured and learned too much. There are nuclear weapons, war, prejudice, and abused children. Lies, unhappy marriages, illness, pain, and death. A world where companies poison our water and our soil, and children kill. What happened to the time when we thought that everyone would live forever, because we didn't grasp the concept of death? When the worst thing in the world was if someone took the jump rope from you or picked you last for kickball. I want to be oblivious to the complexities of life and be overly excited by the little things again.

I want to return to the days when children played hide-n-seek outside instead of being glued to a television, when video games were as harmless as Pac-Man... instead of spine-ripping, blood-splattering games like Mortal Combat, and TV still had some shows on that weren't about sex, killing, and lies.

I remember being naive and thinking everyone was happy because I was. Afternoons were spent climbing trees and fences and riding my bike. I never worried about time, bills, or where I was going to find the money to fix my car. I used to wonder what I was going to do or be when I grew up, not worry about what I'll do if this doesn't work out. I want to live simple again.

I don't want my day to consist of computer crashes, mountains of paperwork, depressing news, how to survive more days in the month than there is money in the bank, doctor bills, gossip, illness, and loss of loved ones. I want to believe in the power of smiles, hugs, a kind word, truth, justice, peace, dreams, the imagination, mankind, and making angels in the snow.

So.... here's my checkbook and my car-keys, my credit card bills and my 401K statements. I am officially resigning from adulthood. And if you want to discuss this further, you'll have to catch me first, cause, 'Tag! You're it!'"

------------

Bob Krumm is the General Manager of The Fulton County Expositor and The Swanton Enterprise, newspapers in Fulton County that belong to The Brown Publishing family.