Summer means time to set out hooks 

By: Glynn Harris

If you grew up back before the war like I did, life was far less complicated. We didn’t realize it was less complicated; it was the life we were born into before complicating things emerged onto the scene. 

Summers, especially, were special for country boys like me. Once school was done for the year at the end of May, we had the whole summer to ourselves. There were assigned tasks we had to do before enjoying the fruits of summer, things like my brother Tom and me helping mama and daddy pick purple hulls, sitting barefoot on the porch with a pan in my lap shelling peas until my fingers took on a purple hue. Not bad at all for at least I didn’t have to get ready to go to school for a few months. 

Sometimes before finishing with the pea shelling, cousin Doug who lived with his brother Sambo on the next hill would come walking up. “Let’s go set out hooks,” he’d say and that was all it took for us to finish our pan of peas in a hurry because setting out hooks was one of the activities that gave the lazy days of summer extra life.