I have long heard the expression “the dog days of summer” but never took the time to look into it. This was the year. I decided to look up the expression.

It seems that the expression originates from the constellation known as “the dog”. The stars therein have influence over the atmosphere.

I knew that the dog days were very hot and humid. Although tradition means they are probably dry as well, the dog days of July were anything but dry. We had more rain that month than usual.

My father-in-law used to say if it was dry on St. Swithen’s Day, July 19, it would be dry the rest of the summer. Well, it was dry on the 19th but that did not hold back the rain.

We are now feeling the effects of the tropical storms that have plagued the south. On Thursday morning I emptied four-and-a-half inches of rain from the rain gauge. Thankfully we have had no wind damage. The electric went out for a couple hours that night, but was on the next morning. We took our flashlights and went to bed since we could not see the end of the baseball game. That is a lot of rain to get in one day. There has been water, water, everywhere! There is a path right through my lawn where the rain ran through it. I imagine the upper portion is quite wet. I suppose that means when the men come to mow the lawn, they will be unable to mow the upper portion once again.

The dog day can be anywhere from the beginning of July until the beginning of September. That is the hottest stretch of weather around here. As I write that I think back to those September days in the classroom. There were days when the sweat ran from top to bottom. On a day like that I came home and got out of my clothes as soon as possible. They went right into the wash! We always had some pretty warm days in September!

When I was growing up, we found something quiet to do during the dog days. My friends and I would pick out a board game to play.

I loved Scrabble. In fact, I loved any game that had to do with words. Often, we would play Monopoly, but we seldom finished that game. Even if we left it up for a couple days, we counted our proceeds and declared the person with the most money and most property the winner.

Another game that we played was Clue. That game could be tricky. You always tried to not to show a particular card to keep the secret until you could solve the case. I recall getting low on papers to document the cards we had. I took three blank sheets and copied them to make more. I still have my original game. The grandchildren and I have played it often. I am not sure if it was better with fewer people playing or more people playing. It just was different.

In the evening I would head to the Athletic Field playground to play volleyball. By then it had cooled off a little. We did not seem to mind that heat at night. Playing volleyball for the playground was a lot of fun. We traveled to all of the playgrounds in town, and the same teams came to our home court for competition.

I never made the connection. One of the girls I met playing volleyball was a sister to one of my classmates. When they came together to our class reunion, I made the connection.

When my own children were young, they played around the house during the dog days. I recall getting them a “Chip-a-roo Bunk House” as a gift. It was a little cabin that fit just perfectly over a card table. They set it up on the porch. They had a lot of fun with that as well as Johnny West and Jane West and their horses. There was an Indian doll as well, but I do not recall his name. I do recall that Jill had a Barbie doll with one leg. That happened when she tried to make her ride the horse.

I spent a lot of time at home in the years when my husband was farming. I never minded it. I had a lot of things that I liked to do. During the dog days you could often find me with my embroidery hoop and a pillow case or dresser scarf sewing. At least I could be productive while I kept cool.

In later years I could often be found making cards. I created a craft room for myself and had all of my supplies at hand. The best part of that was that I did not have to put things away when I needed to quit.

We are in the dog days. Find something you like to do and keep cool!

Ann Swanson writes from her home in Russell. Contact at hickoryheights1@verizon.net.