Conaway: The Fourth is in all of us
Dan Conaway
Dan Conaway is a lifelong Memphian, fascinated and frustrated with his city, but still in love. A columnist since 2010, his distinguished advertising career has branded ribs in the Rendezvous and ducks in The Peabody, pandas in the zoo and Grizzlies in the NBA. Stories in Memphis tend to write themselves. He’s helped a few along. Two book collections of his columns have been published.
You walk outside, and it’s so hot you can’t breathe. Feels like you could carve the air. Humidity is roughly that of a swimming pool. A heated pool. The heat index is triple digits. You stand next to someone taller just for the shade. If there’s a breeze, it’s air from a furnace. And the furnace is on. Your shirt, your pants and anything under sticks to you like a wet rag. A hot wet rag.
It’s hot enough to melt the Doughboy statue’s iron bayonet in Overton Park.
It’s July Fourth in Memphis.
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