August use to be called the Dog Days. I haven't heard that term since Garfield was President.

I am not saying that I'm ancient, just "mellow", and being mellow isn’t the same as being ancient.

Mellow is the first state of emotional and physical suspension. I used to get so mellow that I thought I was a suspension bridge, but that is heading me into a level of thought of why August was called Dog Day.

Everyone, when I was a child, if they could afford it, would pack up and go to the beach and sit in the sun and rub themselves with olive oil and the more aggressive types, the Beachcomber, would sprinkle themselves with garlic and wine vinegar being under the belief that salad dressing was a turn on for the Lasses under the umbrellas.

The worse thing that could happen was that once in the while someone would get stabbed with a salad fork and they would get sunburn, just proving that salad dressing belongs on a salad.

The worse part back in the late twenties and early thirties of the last century were the bathing suits. Think of 90 degree, blazing sun, sandy beaches, no umbrella and a pure wool bathing suit, that was tight because of being the water that was full of sea nettles and coming back to the beach in a wet suit shrinking and nettle bites all over you

All would be more comfortable--the reason August days were called Dog Days, probably because we were jealous of our dogs that were home lying in the shade and we were at the beach having a great time in the sun eating sour pickles and wishing we were comfortable as our dog.

I wanted to divorce my parents over this big deal beach trip. The cherry on top of the sour pickle was the fact that Dad had a huge old REO automobile that weighed 3 tons and had a 40 horsepower engine. The only way that car could get up a hill was to turn it around, and put it in reverse. This calls attention to you and irritates the rest of the motorists severely. I would rather be a dog!

Here is a light summer dessert, Melinda, my wife cool thought for the day. You can cut portions to adjust to your needs.

1 large cottage cheese, 3/4 portion of regular size Cool Whip or whip up real whipped cream--the Cool Whip works great, 1 orange jello, dry contents sprinkled over above, mix well. Then drain two 16 oz. can of Mandarin oranges and fold in to the above mix. A nice touch is to mix in walnut pieces to taste when you fold in oranges. With the Cool Whip there are less calories.