“It’s too hot.” That was a phrase heard over and over again from my children during the holiday weekend.
With temperatures soaring into the 90s for the first time this summer, I’m sure many other parents were hearing the same thing from their children too. The funny thing is, it seems like it was just a month or so ago when we were all complaining about having to turn on pellet stoves and heaters to warm our homes.
I guess that popular saying of “If you don’t like the weather in Maine, just wait … it will change,” is true. By Monday the mercury dropped nearly 20 degrees to the “cool” 70s.
Sadly, it took me three nights of sweating before I remembered we had two large “box” fans sitting unused in the basement, which were perfect for drawing in the cooler night air.
Others have asked me why we don’t put in an air conditioner. For starters, my wife doesn’t like the feeling of having the house closed up tight to keep it cool. The other reason is, I figure we only have about a week or two worth of seriously sweaty nights and are now at the halfway mark.
Our children did their best to keep cool by going in and out of the pool, sometimes three or four times per day. The basement also proved to be a popular hangout. Perhaps during the next bout of extreme heat I’ll convince the family to sleep in the basement.
The Houlton Agricultural Fair committee is probably one group that probably was not too keen on the heat. Every year, fair president Paul Cleary says the best weather the fair can hope for is partly cloudy in the 70s. If it’s too hot, people head to the lake (or pool). If it’s rainy, they stay inside.
Despite this challenge, the organizers of this year’s event put on another fine offering. The fair drew solid numbers each day, with the Fourth naturally being the most popular.
Speaking of the fair, my hopes for winning a lemonade chugging championship were not to be. The event was so popular that too many people signed up to compete. To solve this dilemma, Leigh Cummings came up with the idea of having three rounds of competition and drawing tickets for each round.
My number never came up so my girls did not get to witness my mastery of lemonade drinking. Next year, perhaps.
The Midnight Madness celebration is also proving to be a huge draw for the community as an estimated 5,500 people crammed into downtown Houlton that evening. The free fireworks display that evening is surely a large part as to why so many came out, but the variety of food vendors and fabulous music by McGill’s Community Band, the Army 195th Army Brass Quintet, Tim “The Tuneman” Humphrey and Wally and the Virginians provided the perfect mixture to keep folks dancing in the streets.
Joseph Cyr is a staff writer for the Houlton Pioneer Times. He can be reached at pioneertimes@nepublish.com or 532-2281.
