What’s the best noise of summer? Is it the cicadas tuning up their instruments for an al fresco concert or the crack of the bat from the kids playing ball in the park?
I’d make a vote for the sound of a cooling thunderstorm on a summer night when the rain pours down off the eaves and splatters on your windowsills. And there’s surely something about the sweet splash when you dive into a pool on a hot summer’s day.
But I’d add one more special noise to that roster. I heard it last night. Carol went to the green market this week and our larder’s brimming over with fresh produce: peaches, juicy strawberries, green and red basil, fluffy red-headed lettuce, huge beets that were sweeter than ice cream, tomatoes, wax beans worthy of a still life painting, and best of all, corn on the cob.
We had the corn slathered in butter last night and as I picked up my cob, took a bite, the butter dripping down my fingers, I heard that wonderful popping noise of the corn in my mouth. It says all that I love about summer—the green bounty, the fresh produce that makes every meal a picnic, the surfeit of color and warmth and light.
Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all ye lands, said the Psalmist. Would it be too much to say you can do that with a bite of corn on the cob? And when you’re at it, add the sound of everybody at the table, going “umm-mmmmm.”
Rick Hamlin is the executive editor at GUIDEPOSTS.
