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MCC Daily Tribune Archive

President's Wednesday Message


This week, I am on vacation with my family. Drawn by a story on CBS Sunday Morning a few months back, we planned a summer vacation to Mammoth Cave State Park in Kentucky, followed by a road trip through Tennessee (a state we have never visited) with stops in the Smoky Mountains, Nashville, and Memphis. Why we decided to head to the land of extreme heat and humidity in late June may have something to do with the chilly days of winter when we hatched the idea.

Leading up to the trip, I looked for poems about Tennessee and found a lovely one by Nikki Giovanni, “Knoxville, Tennessee”:

I always like summer
best
you can eat fresh corn
from daddy’s garden
and okra
and greens
and cabbage
and lots of
barbecue
and buttermilk
and homemade ice-cream
at the church picnic
and listen to
gospel music
outside
at the church
homecoming
and go to the mountains with
your grandmother
and go barefooted
and be warm
all the time
not only when you go to bed
and sleep

These childhood summer memories struck a chord.

Far from Knoxville, in Waterford, Wisconsin, I recall spending summers at my Grandmother’s always-unfinished cottage with dozens of real and almost cousins, walking along gravel roads to pick berries, pulling on the nearest and driest swimsuit that fit good enough and piling in the back of someone’s station wagon to ride to the Fox River, where the boat oil in the water left thin lines on our arms as we swam. At night, we could stay up late while the grown-ups played cards or Jeopardy in the kitchen too small for the hulking repurposed dining table. Then, we’d be sent upstairs to sleep three to four in beds crowded into still-stuffy-hot rooms divided by aging sheetrock and connected by large holes kicked in the walls over the years. More than four decades later, I can still hear the spring-propelled slap of the wooden screen door. Much like winter, summer seems designed to make memories.

If you have a favorite childhood memory of summer that “keeps you warm all the time” or exciting plans for this one, please share on the blog.

Anne M. Kress
Office of the President
06/29/2016