Cathleen Allison/Nevada Appeal
Long lazy days, open windows, sprinklers clicking time to a ball game playing on the radio, children's laughter filled voices drifting through the neighborhood savoring their freedom, eating outside ... this is summertime!
Sound like a Norman Rockwell painting? It is. Rockwell is loved for his depictions of life Americana because he captures the magic of the simple everyday pleasures of living. Like reclining on the porch with Grandpa, the dog, and a glass of lemonade; standing on a step stool draped in an oversized apron baking cookies with Mom; the postman delivering a letter from your new best friend from camp; and my favorite, a family gathered around a picnic table passing dishes heaped with corn on the cob, watermelon, and hotdogs - not, because I am a big fan of barbecue, but because I am a hopeless romantic, living for moments spent in communion with family and loved ones.
For me, food is a vehicle of opportunity for togetherness, love, and laughter, sharing memories and making new ones.
I love summer meals in the yard. In part because of the elements, sun, occasional wind, even the bugs. Partly the freedom from etiquette, because spitting seeds into the dirt, eating with my hands, and wearing my swimsuit to the table are acceptable. But mostly it's the ceremony of preparation.
As a child I recall it was a joint effort, not my mom alone in the kitchen making dinner. Dad manned the grill, the brothers cleared the patio and table of leaves and debris, my sister and I took turns carrying bamboo trays in and out the sliding glass door setting the table and delivering the ingredients for our meal. Potato chips and soda pop were big treats for us and paper plates meant no dishes. Dinner was relaxed and filled with humor as we lingered in the warm summer evening, and the biggest treat of all, turning the crank to make homemade ice cream.
Just an average meal? Just an average family? Just another summer evening? Not at all. These are the moments that make up our lives, that tell our stories. We mustn't forget this simple truth. We must remember to create and embrace them.
My family finds it amusing and slightly unbelievable that my life and livelihood are dependent on food and cooking, as I was never fond of either. But though I've cooked my entire adult life, for a family of seven, and now a community, if you were to visit my world, you would see the romance in all that I do, and serve, and prepare. My heart's desire is to create moments to cherish, long after the meal, and I, am gone.
Let's face it, eating and excreting are the basest human activities - we are after all, animals. But one of the things that make our species unique is our desire to decorate, congregate, recreate and ruminate while we masticate.
So remember to celebrate the simple, beautiful, moments of every day life.
• June Joplin is the owner of Comma Coffee.