Summer sounds 1959
by Bryce Martin

It was a bloody sixteenth summer in 1959. Mildly gory, I should say. Each time I raised myself from the sides of the pool at Schifferdecker Park, the rough concrete scraped off enough chest and stomach skin to produce bleeding. There was no getting around it, no other way to get out. I tried time after time to pull off a kind of pull-up and while in midair flip myself out of the pool to ground level. It was pointless. For one thing, my wet trunks weighted me down too much for that and for another it would have to be a move of perfection. That was why I kept giving it an occasional try anyway.

“Sugaree” played over and over on the pool turntable and its thump-thump bass lines drifted tinnily from some large speakers hung on tall poles. Light summer winds caused the sounds to fade in and out like waves at the shore. The speakers were painted a military green, were squarish and had uvula-like stems protruding from the centers.

Sugaree, sugaree
...I miss you in the daytime
But I miss you more at night

It wasn’t a dirty song as sung by Rusty York, but it sounded like it was.
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