Once upon a time, there was no air conditioning. No cool buildings to slip into when temperatures were scorching sidewalks, no cars quickly cooled for a comfortable ride home. It was just plain hot everywhere in the summer, until Mother Nature deemed it time to toss a cooling thunderstorm across the plains or northern winds carried a Canadian breeze over the border.

Maybe that is why memories of icy treats are so entrenched in the minds of anyone who grew up in those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer.

For me, it was orange sherbet push pops. Too hot to cook at home, our mom would pack us into the (seatbeltless) steaming Chevy, and off we would go to the highway café — right on the heels of a late afternoon dip in a Minnesota lake that managed to hang onto its chill, no matter the air temp. It was hot in the café, too, but busy; I guess misery loves company. But when the half-eaten hamburgers and limp French fries were pushed aside, the highlight of the evening came.

We were allowed to peer into the freezer chest anchored to the far wall and pick out a frozen treat to eat on the way home. Nirvana!

I don’t recall what my sisters selected, but for me, it was the orange sherbet push pop. A paper tube surrounded the cylinder of creamy deliciousness, slipping down with each push upward of the slim popsicle stick. The trick, of course, was to lick the sherbet before it began to melt over the top and down the sides of the wrapper — and all over the small hand holding it. Depending on how hot the evening remained, some trips home were stickier than others.

There were evenings when it was even too hot to go out to the café, and my mom had a solution for that, as well. The Dairy Queen.

A chocolate malt; a sundae with nuts and fudge sauce; or one smothered in sweet, fresh (yes, our DQ used some seasonal fruits!) strawberries passed muster for a sweltering summer night dinner. When even a tall, cold malt seemed too much to consider, I opted for the Dilly bar. A circle of soft serve ice milk frozen hard and dipped in chocolate, butterscotch, or cherry coating, a Dilly bar was hard to resist. Was it the little curly topknot that drew me to it? Maybe; and it could be my imagination, but there was either a corny joke printed on the stick, visible when the last of the treat had been nibbled away, or my sisters pretended to read them, pre-reading me a joke they said was on the stick…

Either way, how could a good laugh not be the best thing to beat the heat?

A really hot night meant sleeping on the floor downstairs with the fan going full blast. Upstairs, where our bedrooms were, still held too much of the day’s heat. Settled on top of a pile of blankets, the lights turned low, we closed our eyes, cooled by the memory of waves on the lake and throats briefly cooled by sweet, ice cold treats. We waited for sleep, listening to crickets creaking their melodies, the occasional hoot of an owl, and maybe a far off rumble of thunder promising a cooler day tomorrow.

Sweet dreams — oh, they were!

Air conditioning in homes, cars, and workplaces has pushed the reality of heat and humidity to a secondary concern for many of us today. And (sorry, Mom) a push pop or a Dilly bar just doesn’t cut it for a summer meal anymore. Our tastes have veered off from the sweets to the savory; while not as icy or sweet, a Too Hot To Cook Salad is definitely more nourishing. (But who’s to say a frozen treat can’t be the follow-up?)

3 bell peppers, smallish, red, orange, yellow chopped into ½-inch pieces (about 1½ C total)

1 small cucumber, peeled, cored, quartered, cut into ½-inch chunks (about ½ C)

2 Tbs minced red onion

1 very small clove garlic, crushed

15 yellow and red cherry tomatoes, quartered

6 radishes, chopped coarsely

1 C chickpeas, drained and rinsed *

2-3 oz feta cheese, crumbled *

2 Tbs minced fresh parsley

2 tsp minced fresh oregano

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp black pepper

1 Tbs extra virgin olive oil

2 tsp lemon juice

1 tsp orange juice

Lettuce leaves

Whisk juices, oil, salt, and herbs together and set aside.

Gently combine all of the other ingredients, except the lettuce leaves.

Add dressing and gently toss. Chill. Adjust seasoning to taste.

Roughly tear up lettuce leaves, such as Romaine or buttercrunch. Divide among four small plates and top with vegetable salad.

*Substitute other beans and/or cheese for variation.