Thread: Never Goin' Back

I never thought of it as sissyfied. A/C was mainly a health issue with me. That's what made the decision easy for me to take it out of the truck.

There was no question about it. I toyed with it for years. It became so obvious that my arthritis symptoms were tied to the a/c that the last time my fingers didn't wanna bend, I used whatever mobility remaining to remove the compressor from under the hood.

Nagging trouble with my back, knees, and hips has also disappeared, except for the back, which I think is disc trouble from an injury when I was a kid. The best medicine for my back has been exercise, sleeping without a mattress and keeping my weight under control.

One summer night at Jewel/Osco in Chicago was so hot that I would have turned on the a/c if I had it in the truck. I was waiting for a door, and my wait was going to be a long one, from what they told me.

I lay there in the bunk, sweating in the heat. There was nothing I could do but lie there and take it...no way out.

After about an hour, something happened. I suddenly felt like the world was holding me with its heat, cradling my soul. I felt life flowing into me. There I was, parked between two idling trucks, on a parking lot still hot from a day in full sun, with my own engine still hot, and not a breath of air stirring. The temperature had not gone down at all, and not so much as a whiff of a breeze had arrived, yet the night changed from oppressive to sweet in a second. I thought, I would have turned on the "air" if I had it, but now, I wouldn't trade this for anything in the world.

It's been that way ever since. Now, I look forward happily to the heat of summer, truck or no, the hotter the better. I'll never go back. There's a/c in the truck stops, c-stores, supermarkets, and most restaurants, but I can't get out of those places quick enough and back into the heat, always remembering that night in Chicago.

Interesting toward the end but awkward at the beginning.

I never thought of it as sissyfied. A/C was mainly a health issue with me.

This sentence really explained nothing to me...a reader with no knowledge or context regarding who you are or where you come from. I don't really know what 'sissyfied' means and you should have told me you were talking about 'air conditioning' before you started referring to it as a/c.

Also a lot of ambiguous "theys".