OK, I’m pretty sure I had fond memories of cavorting about in the neighbors’ pool in February when growing up in Tucson. It was a bit nippy, but theirs was heated and we were willing to risk a tad bit o’ chill anytime our parents decided that a mid-winter cocktail party at the Beebe’s was a good idea.
There was a time when our parents, all of the parents on the cul-de-sac I grew up on, had frequent spontaneous and lush cocktail parties with the neighbors, and life on my little cul-de-sac was ideal once I got out of my house. Ours reigned from the top of the loop, enabling me, after innumerable tries, to become the only girl in the neighborhood who could skateboard all the way down my sidewalk to the street pole six houses down. No fear of frost heaves or ice in Tucson in the ’60s and ’70s, and miraculously no broken bones either.
So my thought of a quick trip to Tucson in the early days of February prompted me to bring lots of short-sleeved things and Birkenstocks — which my mother once remarked were shoes worn only by lesbians and pot dealers. To which I, a snarky little thing, replied, “OK, wanna guess which one?” Alas, I was only a Birkenstock wearer, but I felt the need to stand up for my tribe, as well as for my more fashion-conscious lesbian and pot-dealing friends who would never be caught dead in ugly footwear.
Anyway, for those of my readers pondering some February fun in the sun in the desert Southwest, a note of caution: It gets cold down there. Most mornings are in the low 40s, and even the afternoon mid-70s don’t seem as mid-70s-ish as I remembered. I spent much of my time wishing I was warmer, and I wasted twenty bucks on a necessary hoodie, and article of clothing that, oddly enough, has never flattered me.
Of course, many of my memories are tainted by the rust of decades following and the light of perspective that age brings. I’m guessing I wasn’t a knockout in my first, or even my last, bikini, and I probably didn’t wear one in February. My memories of late-winter sunburns have been gently nudged to a more likely late-spring, and the one winter the four of us descended on Tucson in late February and DID spend hours in the hotel pool was clearly a late-’90s anomaly.
I know, however, and know without a doubt, that I truly did skateboard all the way down the block — an early memory of empowerment and achievement time can’t take away . . .
I’ll be back blogging in mid-February, and I hope all of you are well. There’s MUCH to discuss: the emergence of Rick Santorum as a plausible presidential candidate, which I had predicted months ago before Cain, Bachmann, and Perry dropped out, the moral vacuity demonstrated by the Religious Right-influenced GOP, the reality that, in 2012, we’re discussing the right of women to avail themselves of contraceptives, the continuing and pitiable Doug Wilson obsession with manhood, fatherhood, masculinity and patriarchy, and all sorts of issues both vexing and valorous. So stay tuned,readers, and get ready for a mid-February gust of Prevailing Winds that I guarantee will be fresh, focused, and funkier than words can say.
It’s gonna be a wild ride.
Will you have anything on John Piper and “masculine Christianity”? I’m dying to hear what you think about that!
Comment by Caroline Schleier Cutler — February 15, 2012 @ 8:40 pm