Today, a glance through the front window at the outside thermometer confirms just exactly what we had thought. Anybody caught outside is in for a real baking under this Texas sun. When we are in the middle of a blistering heat wave, we look for ways to battle the temperature and survive. For the majority of the population, this means walking very fast from air-conditioned work place to air-conditioned vehicle and then driving extremely fast toward an air-conditioned house.

Yet I do remember another time in another place when the summer sun and the resulting warm summer evenings, (cross that out and read HOT summer evenings) drove country folks out in the yard dragging their bed springs and mattresses behind them. My brother and I thought it was an event when it got too hot to sleep inside the house and Mama said we could move our beds to the yard. The house rules about sleeping with dogs and cats didn't apply to the yard and besides there were all those stars and moon up there to look at.

The bliss of sleeping under the stars is hard to describe to anyone who has never done it, but instantly identifiable to those who know the peace and wonder of lying on their backs and staring up at heaven. Iron bedsteads, coiled springs and cotton filled mattresses not withstanding, those nights sleeping out in the open air with the sound of night birds, braying mules, and bawling cows are to be remembered and cherished.

Along about the first of June, Austin and I would set up a plea that the house was way too hot to sleep in and we wanted to move our beds to the side yard under the locust trees. We'd stake out our claims in the yard for bed spaces and then when one of our parents would look at the other and say, "Well it was pretty warm in here last night," we would begin the move.

Sometime after dark, we'd take turns showering in the homemade shower my brother built beside the windmill and then get dressed for bed. Once between the sheets with the whole sky curving up there above us, the dreams about the future would begin.

"When I grow up I'll play my music for everybody to hear and they'll come from everywhere to listen." My brother would be the first to dream outloud.

"I'm going to be a writer, and write lots of stories about horses and cats and dogs", I'd say outloud. "And there will be one special white horse, no maybe a honey colored horse with a white mane and tail and his name will be 'Honey Boy'. I'll write stories about his adventures and ride him all over Hardeman County."

From his bed a few feet away, I'd hear my brother call softly to Beaver, the sleek greyhound that loved him and then the squeak of bedsprings as the dog made a place for himself beside Austin. We both knew that such things as dogs in the house were not allowed by our parents, much less dogs in bed but when we slept out in the yard, those rules were stepped over. Since my brother had a bed fellow, I would get up and search for my cat, Doodles and bring him back to bed. However Doodles generally stayed only a few minutes. He was far more interested in the night life around the farm than in sleeping by my side.

"Oh boy, just look at all those stars up there!"

"They look so close you could just reach out and touch 'em! And just get a load of that moon!"

The idea of actually going to the moon didn't come up. I know that such a thing never entered my mind as a possibility. We were both avid readers of Buck Rogers Adventure books but looked upon such things as space ships and rockets as pure fantasy. We never imagined that a man might someday walk on the moon and that we would be able to see him do it.