Hollyhock Junction: July 2013

Friday, July 12, 2013

Before Air Conditioning

Phelps Mill County Park. Here, wheat was once ground into flour, and the community enjoyed one hundred years of picnics along the breezy Ottertail River. We cool off. Men and women in colorful shorts, tee shirts, and sun glasses. Children dance barefot in wispy dresses, or swim on the sand bar. Temps in the nineties with high humidity. A cloud of steam rising, and in the vapor I envision genteel men, sporting handle bar mustaches and wearing panama hats, crisp white short sleeve shirts and tan slacks. They're singing harmoniously in quartet, "Down by the Old Mill Stream.."

Proverbs 31: 10-31

10. Her price is far above rubies. 11. The heart of her husband does safely trust. 12. She will do him good. 13. She seeks the wool and flax. 14. She brings her food from afar. 15. She rises while it is yet night. 16. She considers a field. 17. She girds her loins with strength. 19. She lays her hands to the spindle. 20. She stretches out her hands to the poor. 21. She's not afraid of the snow for her household. 22. She makes herself coverings. 23. Her husband is known. 24. She makes fine linen and sells it. 25. She rejoices. 26. She opens her mouth with wisdom. In her tongue is the law of kindness. 27. She eats not the bread of idleness. 28. Her children rise up and call her blessed. 29. She excels. 30. A woman that fears the Lord. 31. Give her the fruit of her hands.