A time of hose pipe bans and lazy weekends

[cidermaid]

Hi Billy,
Two hundred and twelve you say...I remember hosepipe bans...in the Uk the standpipes had to be fitted via a row boat and the people taken to court for breaking the ban were washing the flood water and mud off thier cars - true story!

Not had as much time for this as i would like but here is what I've scanned before off to play with my bag-in box cider...hours of fun.

Two hundred and twelve was a sizzler: Like the plain no fuss opener. (also like the alliteration onto summer from sizzler).
Summer emptied it's hot ash pan all over Not sure it’s needs the apostrophe. Love the image.
greedy asthmatics that sucked life from inhalers ? should that be who sucked. (great reversal from standard image of life sucked from a person)
before hitting the nation's emergency rooms. Nice junky / addict type image.
Cooling beer used up electricity
faster than a Tesla experiment in Colorado;
the sun's reflection lived in every bead of salted sweat.

Everyone's kids looked like sun dried tomatoes The sun dried tomatoes image made me think of wrinkled and old rather than the hot red image I think perhaps you were going for.
covered in whitewash, sun-factor gazillion. I like the use of gazillion. (I take this as a child speak sort of thing …as in what number comes after a billion times billion…so for me reinforces the image of the children and also has a image play of overzealous parents). Think perhaps a dash rather than a comma after whitewash might define the exaggeration or even a full stop and use speach indentations for the voice of the kids – Just an idea.
Burnt breasts were proudly hoisted
on freckled forearms and over garden fences.
The t shirt was in, then off; men strutted like cocks Think a dash is needed to connect t to shirt.
and showed off six packs, old men under hankies
pulled in one packs, but not for long. Love these two lines – so sad but true.



Ugly girls were pretty too, in the heat
nipples drilled into a casual glance, or seasoned stare.
braver ones whipped them out for an even tan.
If you were lucky you got to cream them up. Naughty. It had to be in there somewhere. Its a Billy poem Love it.
Sometimes it was scary, the kids giggled Not sure that water balloons conjure an image of scary for me. More like it got silly. But like the action and image of the close.
and threw water balloons from upstairs windows
The dog lay in the shade between the garage
and the shed, panting.

Overall a easy and fun read to be enjoyed. AJ.