Cold...Cold...Cold

Today...the second day of summer...a chill has returned to the air. The other night as I sang outdoors...it was freezing. That
is the way it is in Canada,,,in June...even on the "balmy" west coast...and you cannot assume that the time for extra layers of clothing has passed. I find that perhaps because of my tropical beginnings...I get chilled to the bone very easily. When you
become like that...singing is not your favourite activity. That is one of the times when you go into your trouper mode...dig
deep...and sing...with difficulty. On this evening...to help myself and my largely northern born audience...who were also
huddling close...in bunches to keep warm...I sang a song I'd written years ago...very suited to an occasion like this...bluntly
called..."Cold...Cold...Cold"...with rhe chorus: "Cold...Cold...Cold...September on and on down through May [I forgot to
mention June]...Cold...Cold...Cold...I don't care what the weather man say". As the audience sang its calypso-like chorus...it
seemed to put them in a jovial mood...which appeared to help them and myself for its duration. Sometimes...before I sing this song...I mention that I grew up on the equator..."swimming in soup"...and so whenever my Canadian born friends invite me to join them in swimming in...swimming pool...creek...river...or ocean...and tell me "come in...it's warm!"...I immediately
recognise it as a lie...well intentioned though it may be...as...apart from the occasional heated swimming pool...most of us
don't have access to...there are no such things as warm places to swim in Canada. As someone who grew up swimming like a fish in the river in front of our house... I would love to swim...but when the thought comes to me...a continent away from those beginnings...I regretfully turn it aside...reminding myself that...that was before I came to a land...where spring...summer...fall...or winter...the places available for swimming in...are all..."Cold...Cold...Cold".....................Quester.