My favorite thing about summer is the smell. I grew up in the city, in a place whose climate was "temperate". Summers almost always got scorching hot, mainly because the tree-to-concrete building ratio in my neighborhood was approximately 1 to 25. When I was little we didn't have air conditioning, so I had to master the art of using blinds, curtains and sheets soaked in water to keep the heat out -- which I took as a challenge and enjoyed immensely. But I digress...
I must have been around 10 when I realized that summer days had at least three distinct smells: fresh and somewhat dewy in the morning, hot and dusty in the afternoon, and cool, musty and sweet in the evening. I used to love going out on my balcony and sniffing at the air -- it was like drowning in summer, in the feeling that I was free from homework, that there was nothing I was expected to do.
I think I stopped being able to identify the three smells during the summer before my freshman year of college. I was tired, stressed and broken-hearted. I had no capacity for trivial enjoyment.
But yesterday morning, when I walked into the living room and opened the deck doors, I recognized the summer morning smell. It was glorious. I was very happy.