Summertime!

Finally. We turn off the highway onto the long, straight gravel drive. On one side of us, the putting green and an empty golf cart (too early in the afternoon for farmers to come in from their tractors). On the other side, rows of young cotton, just beginning to bloom in that pounding west Texas heat. Just ahead, the clubhouse and the pool—not a fancy country club, but the ORC—Olton Recreation Center. A whole Saturday afternoon of cannonball splats and breathless dives to the bottom of the deep end. Hot concrete, bare feet, and squeals of pure joy. And after--a little sunburn, a nickel Payday, and the quiet ride back to town with the Spain kids. Sweet exhaustion on a Saturday afternoon. A kid’s oasis right here in Lamb County.

Leslie Holladay Patterson