"PRINCESS-SUMMER-FALL-WINTER-SPRING"

Many times I have been on the receiving end of e-mails related to events from the past: highlighting & celebrating items, such as products & entertainment which seem to be nostalgia now to many of my "older" friends.

I have noted from the "Nostalgia E-Mails" -- as I refer to them -- they have a lot of old black & white TV shows referenced.  I guess this was before color & high-definition televisions.  At least, that is what I have been told.

I guess older people think things were better ... "back then".  Maybe so.  Since I am only 34 years old, I'll have to give my friends the benefit of the doubt.

One TV show for kids which seems to bring fond memories was called The Howdy Doody Show.  [Where did they come up with that name ??]  All the characters -- except for two humans: Buffalo Bob Smith  & Clarabelle The Clown, (a pre-Captain Kangaroo, Bob Keeshan) -- were marionettes: wooden toy-size figures, controlled by strings/wires.  [Get this.  The wires or strings, whatever ... WERE VISIBLE !!]

Now days, there would only be one word for a show like Howdy Doody;  CANCELED.  Talk about lame.  The show was almost as bad as the  Kukla, Fran & Ollie show. Well, at least that's what I've been told. [I'm too lazy to look it up on U-Tube.]

One of the marionettes was called Princess-Summer-Fall-Winter-Spring, or something like that ... so I have been told.  Anyway, I was thinking of that name today, as the combination of seasons seems to be the name quite applicable to the current weather conditions in Arkansas.

Yesterday, they had the highest temperature in ever recorded in Little Rock.  Ever. 114 degrees.

A new name for this time of year might be "Summer-Fall", sort of like the Princess. The calendar has us at the beginning of August (Summer) but the heat & dryness, has it looking like Fall.  It's "Summer-Fall" for sure.

 Many of the trees on my property are shedding their leaves in large quantities, littering the ground.  The Dog Wood Tree -- in the right of the above photo -- has wilting leaves from the lack of rain.

 The creek bed is also littered with falling leaves.  It's been a long time since there was any H2O in the creek.

 Looking back towards the house -- & the Dog Wood Tree now on the left -- it is just leaf litter everywhere. It sure looks like Fall.

From lack of rain -- in areas where I am not hauling H2O or pulling hoses to H2O trees -- the ground is cracking from the dryness.

This "Summer-Fall" reminds me of The Howdy Dooty Show & Princess Summer-Fall-Winter-Spring.

I am sure glad I've receive all those e-mails from my older friends, so I would know about TV shows back then & how they brought so much joy to kids when times were a lot different.

At least, that's what I've been told.