Singing Like Edith Bunker in QUOTIDIEN

Contrary to what many believe, Quebec can get pretty HOT in the summer. The kind of heat that makes your skin slick and your scalp drip. I remember, as a child, sitting out on my Grandmaman's front porch, crying because there was just no escaping the dreadful heat. In a way that Floridian's don't invest in heat pumps and tire chains, the Québécois saw no need for air conditioners and box fans. Grandpapa's solution was to 'walk fast and make your own breeze'. What he meant was that if I did something other than just sit and cry, it wouldn't be so bad.

Enter: impromptu corn-shucking parties. The year was about 1977 and this shindig wasn't a planned event outside of a couple of phone calls. "Aie, Manon -dere ees fresh cohrn for sale at de cornair of DesRicollets and...euh...by de garage." Thirty minutes later, half the block had bought out the farmer's stand, and people were setting up at the end of their driveways with whatever chairs they could find, placed around a barrel or two.

Friends and family would arrive, bringing whatever they had been preparing for dinner. While some made their way into the kitchen to put the finishing touches on this or that, the rest set to shucking corn. Molson and pop bottles bobbed in large coolers here and there, and became a sort community grab. No one abused the good will and all were, in one way or another, compensated.

A spoonful of sugar in every vat, and ready-to-eat corn would be brought out for consumption. Greasy faced and lips swollen by salt, strangers would begin to sing the 'rigodons' - 'ancient' québécois folk songs that almost everyone knew. All the good-natured ribbing, off-key notes, and pale blue jokes led to peals of contagious laughter. Whatever we might have gained in weight was devoured by the joyful spending of such energy throughout the day.

By evening's end-new friendships were made, new garage bands formed, and barrels of golden corn silk and spent cobs were set by the road to give testimony of how one hot, August night, a little community 'made their own breeze'.

Those were the daaaaaays!