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Dogdays...

Don't hear nothin out there and
the air's so heavy you could cut it
with a butterknife.
Don't have no idea where
all the birds are.
What do they do, all go down to the
swamps and bury themselves in
mud or something?
But you sure cant blame 'em!
It's so hot out there it'd singe the
feathers right off their bodies if
they tried to fly around.
Got up this morning before
daylight thinking maybe it'd be
a little cooler, but after sweating it
out all night, it was no cooler, so
we went on down to the
watermelon patch and picked us a
good, mellow juicy-ripe one for
breakfast, and dropped it hard on
the ground so's it'd bust half in two,
then we gobbled up the middle
heart part where there's no
seeds to worry with then
we all picked a few more and
hauled 'em on down to the creek.
Now that's one place you can
cool off anytime. That water's always
cold enough to freeze the horns off a
billygoat no matter how hot the
summer gets.
We put our watermelons in that
cold water and then crawled right
in behind 'em.
Pretty soon everybody in the
whole community was gathering
up there in that one spot.
Which everybody expected anyway,
since that is the "Oh-fishul"
swimmin' hole fer miles around!
'Bout dinner time it was, when
Mama and Papa themselves
come on down too, 'n Mama,
she brought some biscuits and
sidemeat all packed up in a
syrup bucket for us to eat along with
the watermelon and a pile of
cantalopes brother brought up from
his patch over by the holler.
Well I tell you we was all makin' so
much noise by that time we
forgot all about it being dogdays and
no birds anywhere.
I heard Mavis tellin' Herman she
would even sleep all night right over
there on that sandbar if it weren't
for fear of getting toted off by
mosquitoes!
Well tomorrow I know we'll all be
out there in that cotton patch agin,
prayin' for a thunderstorm by the
time it gits to be three o'clock!
I jist hope we make it to git all
that cotton picked and then
on down to the gin,
but I tell ya, these
dogdays sure can make a
lazybone out of a body!
And I mean
Any body!!!
Amen, to that, Brother!!
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