"Summer In the City"

With temperatures soaring to the high 90's for the next few days a little summer music is in order. When I was about fourteen I went to summer school. There was too much fun to be had in school during the year, and too much idle time on my hands in the summer, so I suppose I subconciously just split the term up a bit.

It fascinated me no end, when in the summer I would leave our cool, air conditioned apartment for the walk to the subway station, and upon hitting the street I would be slammed with an oven like wall of heat. This was usually about 7:30 in the morning, and though it had already been daylight for an hour or so, the sun was just coming up over the trees. This was my first realization that the sun came up in the East, traversing Avenue R. at a slight angle for the remainder of the day. Years later I learned that this is the apparent result of the elliptical path which the sun seemingly takes, while we, of course make our daily trip around it. But it was so much more magical when I didn't understand it.

I always had my 6 transistor radio on hand, or more accurately, at my ear. "Summer in the City" was one of my favorites that year, which is why it's posted above. Music is funny like that. It has a life of it's own, which can evoke memories that are physically felt.

When I hear this record I still feel 14 years old as I leave the apartment on Avenue R. I can still hear the quiet of the early morning in Brooklyn, and I still see the slow parade of tired commuters making their way to the train station to put in another day at whatever they were doing. And, on a day like today, I can still feel the heat.