Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (May 7, 1987)
It's that time of year again. Time to think of ways to survive the summer heat. Of course, there are always drastic measures. You can drag your bed into the kitchen and sleep in front of the open refrigerator, you can fill your waterbed with dry ice or — if you have money you don't know what to do with — you can take a three-month cruise to Alaska. Even though these approaches may not be feasible, there are plenty of ways to get around the heat of summer, no matter where you may be. If you have to endure the heat, endure it in an exotic location. To do that you’ll need the help of your friendly travel agent. Travel agents have information on every kind of trip available, from month-long vacations to to weekend flights. Talk to them to set up a cruise to the Bahamas or any other exotic place and enjoy the summer heat among palm trees and coconuts. If you don’t have the time or the money for an extended cruise, there are many other ways to get away from the heat of summer. In order to help you do that, here are some tips to beat the heat. Your local park can be a great place to get away from the heat of summer, even if you aren’t 7 years old anymore. Wait until evening, when the heat of the day has passed and pack a picnic. Call a couple of friends, or that special person, and head out to the park. Rediscover the swings and the seesaw and don’t forget the big slide that scared you to death when you were little. It might not be as scary as you remember, but it will still be fun. Be a Sport Summer is a great time to take up water sports. Instead of sweating to death while jogging, run to the nearest pool and dive in. Swimming exercises muscles all over your body, but still keeps you cool. However, if you can’t live without jogging, jog at night when it’s cooler. Besides, many places run their sprinkler systems at night, so if you get too hot, take a detour through their cool spray. If you live near a lake you can take up waterskiing or parasailing and have fun, meet new people and get in shape wihout dying of heatstroke. It’s evening and you have nothing to do. It’s too hot for the park picnic and all the good movies have been rented. Don’t give up hope yet. Instead of condemning yourself to another night of summer reruns, check out the local theatre scene and see what plays are in performance. Go to some experimental theatre performances and expand your horizons instead of watching the same cops chase the same cars they chased three months ago. The theatre is not the only place to expand your cultural knowledge. Go to that museum no cool person would have been caught dead in during high school. Many towns have historical museums which contain a lot of interesting information about the history of the town and the surrounding area. You can also go to art galleries. Not only are they air conditioned, but you can spend a cool afternoon in the modern art section trying to figure just what drug the artists were on when they were painting their pictures. Finally, you can enter the one place you may never go during the school year — the library. And this time you won’t have to head for the reference section or the study carrels. Instead, catch up on the latest Stephen King or Robert Ludlum novel, or pick up the latest issue of “Time" magazine and just relax. Keep Your Cool While you can find ways to beat the heat during your spare time, there are still those hot hours when you are at work or school that have to be endured. But don’t blow up. There are plenty of ways to stay cool and calm even when the temperature is 100 degrees or more. For instance, you have 10 minutes to get across town, which is just enough time if you leave NOW. You walk out of your house and get halfway to your car, only to realize that you have left something behind. You run back to your house, grab your things, run back to