Chico's Feel Good Friday

Summertime is here!

Thu 8th May 2008
11:22pm
Chico

You can never really be sure when summer begins in old blighty, nor when it ends...because we rarely notice it starting, and when we realised it had, it was over before it’d begun! Although, the shortage of fans and air conditioners in Argos, a burnt ‘t-zone’ and the remergence of the word ‘muggy’ is a fair giveaway.

In Salford, however, the signs are easier to spot. Someone always has a soft top Ford Escort, and you only ever see it at the start of summer. Even though Ford stopped making them years ago. And at the mere hint of a prolonged stint of sun, that top comes down no matter what. There could be a black cloud on the horizon, a guaranteed monsoon up ahead, a motorway needing to be traversed—forget it, that top is coming down. Another sign used to be corned beef legs. More of a rarity in the era of the tanning salon but if you look hard enough, they’re still seen amongst proud male septuagenarians: usually with a white sock and sandle combo. Extra marks earned for safari suit jackets, knotted hankies and a pipe (smoking shag rather than regular tobacco).

I haven’t seen either of these two dead giveaways yet, therefore I’m not giving this claim a full-blown endorsement. That said, some radio stations are playing ‘Summertime’, even the too cool for school channels who’d usually give Will Smith a wider birth than a proud male septuagenarian. So without being typically (and cynically) British in saying ‘enjoy it while it lasts’, let’s hope the jumpers stay in the drawers for a good few months yet.

Being the first Friday of the summer, it’s only right we start it off with some typically summery tunes. I can smell the cut grass already. And you can’t start summer without a bit of Roy Ayers, or indeed, a Fresh Prince or two. Nope, it can’t be done. Gentlemen, start your BBQs…