Hottest State soundtrack/book pack winners

You all are The Hottest. I so enjoyed reading the batches of summertime recollections submitted for the contest to win the soundtrack and book for The Hottest State. It deeply pleases me to have such literate and aware and appreciative readers who can share wonderful memories that took me away to dozens of different locales along with you.

Here were the two randomly out-of-a-hat selected winners: a survivor of a sweaty Amazonian summer, and a tale of covert summertime swimming that reminds me of my own first kiss (and subsequent rent-a-cop bust) experience many Augusts ago — don’t worry Mom, with more clothes. Congrats to both winners and I need address info for you guys.

I encourage the rest of you to take a few minutes (and a mini-vacation) by reading all the great impressionistic memories of warm and sticky days.

At August 11, 2007 12:57 PM, mel said…
Oooooh, how fabulous!

Favourite hot summer memories have to do with my summer in the Amazonian rainforest… falling asleep in hammocks listening to the monkeys, bathing and doing laundry in the river, fishing for piranhas (take that, you nasty little fish!), sweating like crazy (small price to pay for my first acne-free summer since puberty), picking fresh guavas, drinking guarana, enjoying a tarantula infestation…. (Pardon me while waves of nostalgia break on the shores of my memory.)

I’m a faithful Fuel/Friends reader, so I’ll know it if you randomly choose me. (^_^)

At August 11, 2007 11:22 PM, Sal said…
On an unbearably warm summer evening in South Florida, my girlfriend and I stripped down to nearly nothing, hopped a fence, removed the rest of our clothing and skinny-dipped in a golf course community’s private pool. Of course, security arrived shortly afterward and found us hiding in the pool behind a bush. Forced to leave, we asked the security guard to turn around so my girlfriend could get into her one piece of clothing – a short Detroit Red Wings hockey jersey. I then put on my boxers, and with our heads held high, and her tugging down on the jersey, we marched out the gate. The guard took down our information, and we were forever banned from the pool. But fortunately this was Florida, and all it took was crossing the street to find another pool to escape from the heat. And maybe the next security guard won’t pretend he doesn’t wish to be young again.