[speaker001:] Well, the weather has been, certainly has been hot and it's been humid. I don't remember a year in a long time that the humidity has stayed up this high for, uh, this late into, uh, well, it's not really late into the summer, but the, the humidity has hung around all of June.
[speaker002:] Yeah. Are you native to this area?
[speaker001:] No, I grew up in Michigan, so, uh, *slash problem
[speaker002:] Oh, okay.
[speaker001:] But I've been, I've been in Texas for fifteen years. *sd
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] So, uh, but, you know, I know the summers get hot but
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] it certainly, uh, this humidity has just really hung on there.
[speaker002:] Yeah. Yeah, it seemed like, well, you know, last year was so strange having all those heavy, heavy rains in April and this year we really didn't have heavy rains until May. Kind of like pushed the season back a little farther and now it's kind of lingering with kind of still a bit of humidity and it just tried to rain, I mean, I was coming in from my car just a few minutes ago and it was trying to rain which
[speaker001:] Yes.
[speaker002:] seems strange to have it raining in July. Normally we don't have too much, uh, humidity or, or, uh, rainy time when it's past June.
[speaker001:] Oh, that's right, that's right. I can remember it not, it's really August that it happens. You get those great big cracks in the ground where it's been so dry
[speaker002:] Right.
[speaker001:] and it just gets so dry and, the earth opens up. I can remember the first year I moved here
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] and it didn't rain, I moved here like in late August and it didn't rain from August until December and,
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] I went home and told it just doesn't rain in Texas. I mean it was great after growing up in Michigan and not, and al-, you know, every day was cloudy, almost every day was cloudy and I, you sort of forget how much it did rain and coming here and then it didn't rain, it was just wonderful.
[speaker002:] Well, yeah, see I, I lived in, uh, Ohio mainly. I lived in, uh, Pontiac just a little while before I came
[speaker001:] Oh, yeah.
[speaker002:] down here and, you know, so many times when you were trying to schedule outdoor activities, you just never knew if it was going to be a go or not because of the weather. It might rain on your little parade.
[speaker001:] That's right, that's right.
[speaker002:] You know, and here it was like, pretty much you could schedule some activity outside anytime and you really didn't have too much of a chance of it getting rained out.
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] You could pretty much do whatever you wanted to do.
[speaker001:] That's right.
[speaker002:] What part of Michigan were you living in?
[speaker001:] Oh, I grew up in Dearborn
[speaker002:] Okay.
[speaker001:] which is a suburb of, of Detroit.
[speaker002:] Yeah, yeah.
[speaker001:] You probably know where that is because I know where Pontiac is, so, uh, *slash error
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] [LAUGHTER] Anyway, yeah.
[speaker002:] What brought you down here?
[speaker001:] Oh, a teaching job.
[speaker002:] So you teach in Plano schools?
[speaker001:] Yeah, I did, I did for a while, uh-huh. So, I'm home with, home with two children, so, uh, *slash error
[speaker002:] Oh.
[speaker001:] So,
[speaker002:] Okay [faint].
[speaker001:] New career.
[speaker002:] Okay.
[speaker001:] New career but, uh, anyway, so that kind of, uh, well, I had been down here to visit so I school and said hey, let's, you know, find a place that has a nice job and, uh, that's how it worked out.
[speaker002:] Well, yeah, I think a lot of people were, uh, leaving Michigan all about the time I came here in the early eighties and it seemed like it was almost a mass exodus.
[speaker001:] Oh, yeah.
[speaker002:] You know, the, the little joke about, will the last person leaving Michigan just turn out the light [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] Oh, well, it's a nice place, you know, I mean it's, it's a nice, that's a nice place, though.
[speaker002:] Well, you know, I, I said I lived in, uh, the Pontiac. I didn't live in the city of Pontiac, I lived to the west of it. Uh, I forget the, the county, but you know where all the lakes are around there.
[speaker001:] Okay, sort of.
[speaker002:] I lived in an apartment complex on one of the lakes. It was real close to where I worked. It was only like four miles to work and it was wonderful being on the lake like that. You know, in the summer, you feel like you're, you know, on a vacation all the time because you're right on a lake and everybody's, you know, out enjoying the water and such, and, uh, in the winter time the lakes froze over, you could still kind of go sledding and such out there but I thought it was just really neat to be out there on all those lakes. There's lots of really small ones out there.
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] You know, like maybe a mile, two long.
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] That's enough to, uh, do some boating
[speaker001:] That's right.
[speaker002:] and it was lots of fun.
[speaker001:] That's right. Lake, I think Lake Whitmore is the only one I have real memories of. *slash error
[speaker002:] Um.
[speaker001:] Which is, well, I think it's, I think it's toward Ann Arbor, so it's probably out in that direction, but that's the only one I probably could name
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] after all these years [LAUGHTER] so,
[speaker002:] Yeah, yeah.
[speaker001:] But, uh,
[speaker002:] But it was, yeah, just lots of little lakes and, of course, it was, you know, a little more expensive to live on the lake, but I just thought that was grand. And I think a lot of people didn't really know that there were all those lakes out there unless you were from that area and kind of spotted them, but there was quite a few lakes all around there. It seemed like, it was almost like you were living on an island there was so much water around where I was. I said I wasn't close to downtown Pontiac, I was way out to the west maybe four or five miles from, from the city limits and it was really nice out there.
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] We had, uh, Pine Knob
[speaker001:] Oh.
[speaker002:] you know, to go skiing
[speaker001:] Right.
[speaker002:] and stuff.
[speaker001:] Right.
[speaker002:] So there were things around there. Really was pretty nice.
[speaker001:] Sure, sure, and d-, isn't that where they have a summer music festival there, too?
[speaker002:] Right, right in the summertime they have musicals there and in the winter time they make snow and have a ski slope.
[speaker001:] That's right, that's right. I know, we used to, we, we didn't do a lot of it, but we did.
[speaker002:] Yeah, yeah.
[speaker001:] We did, so those are always fun. And Alpine, was it Alpine was another ski slope
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] that we went to, so, uh, *slash error
[speaker002:] Uh-huh, uh-huh.
[speaker001:] It was nice. I always tell people [LAUGHTER] that in the winter we use, we used to, uh, my dad would kind of bank up the snow in the backyard and turn the hose on, you know, make a pond in the backyard for us.
[speaker002:] Oh, yeah, yeah.
[speaker001:] So but, uh, you know, we probably did some ice skating on it, but then it chipped, chipped and, you know, it would melt or whatever and get pretty uneven so,
[speaker002:] Yeah, yeah. We used to have a Christmas time, uh, some of our relatives would come up from Alabama, and I think most times we would have snow around Christmas and the kids when they were young would just go nuts.
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] You know, because they were from Alabama where it never snowed
[speaker001:] Oh.
[speaker002:] and they just had a grand time watching the snow and getting out there and playing in it, you know, eternally.
[speaker001:] Oh.
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] Oh, right, right. If only it would make nice snow here in Texas, we'd be okay at Christmas time.
[speaker002:] My first winter here, I, I came down in, uh, early eighty-two and there was just a freak snowfall early one morning in December be-, couple days before Christmas. It lasted only a few hours, like
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] by noon it was gone.
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] And I remember getting up and somebody telling me, hey, better wait to go to work because the roads are all, you know, snow [LAUGHTER]. And I was laughing, going yeah, right, that's a good practical joke, ha ha.
[speaker001:] [LAUGHTER].
[speaker002:] They said, no really, there's snow and there was, but a very short time and the weather got warm so quick
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] it just melted it all away.
[speaker001:] Yeah, yeah, I know.
[speaker002:] Course, when we get an ice storm, that's not too much fun.
[speaker001:] No, that's not fun either, so, uh, I, I just as soon have all the slushy snow on the streets than have the ice on the streets so,
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] But, uh, well we have, our house is kind of on a little hill, so, uh, we get the sled out and, uh, the kids go down the hi-, the hill on the sleds when it's icy, I mean they just go down the ice.
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] [LAUGHTER] And if it's cold, we say, okay, out you go.
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER] [NOISE].
[speaker001:] I think we must be the only people on the block that make use of that cold weather and get out there.
[speaker002:] Oh, yeah. I think it's fun, even the couple of ice storms I've gotten out there in my ski pants or something and still just been out and enjoying it a little bit. I mean, sometimes the ice is pretty bad, but if you get on the, the, uh, grassy kind of part, you get a little bit of traction, you know, not slip and fall. I mean, first,