Summer in the City

It has been one hot summer so far. Many record breaking temperature days. All this hot weather reminds me of growing up in the old neighborhood. You would get up early and go outside looking for a game of baseball or get your bike and go for a ride, someplace far, maybe to Belmont Plateau. Sometimes you would just sit on the corner and play pinochle, while eating water ice and pretzels. If you were lucky , Father Carbo would take you and a few others to St. Charles Seminary to swim in their olympic pool. Other times we would walk to
Shanahan swim club, and go swimming there. You had to be careful while in the water that "Brutus" didn't grab you and pull you under.
I think the most fun times was when they would turn on the fire hydrant.
Someone would get a wrench and two or three others would go half way up the block as lookouts, to make sure no police were around, and then turn on the fire plug. The water would come gushing out, cold and invigorating, and everyone would be there to enjoy it. The old ladies would come out with their brooms and sweep the sidewalk and scrub the stoops. Those who had a car would get a bucket and start washing it. We had our own water park in the city. Girls would stroll by and dare the guys not to get them wet, they didn't want their hair messed up. It never worked, someone would always get "dunked". After complaining, they walked away feeling popular, they were noticed.
It's funny, no matter how old you get, you can still remember the good times
like they were yesterday. The fire plug always seemed to be a highlight of the hot summer days of my youth. I don't ever remember anything bad when the plug was turned on, just the sounds of kids playing and water gushing.
Eventually, the police would come and turn off the fire plug, leaving everybody sad but satisfyingly cool.
A couple hours later, the lookouts would be back out .