Beyond the Byline: Sing along and stay cool, man

The heat is on.

Well, if the weather forecasts are correct, we will see record high temperatures this week.

And if it gets as hot as is predicted, the heat won’t be the only thing “on” this week — air conditioners will be purring everywhere.

Starting today, Monday, expect temperatures in the 90s and that will continue all week, or as our WBRE media partners say, it will be “hot, hot, hot, hot, hot.”

We could even approach triple digits — 100 degrees or higher.

So stay cool, avoid the high heat as much as you can, and we should make it through this early summer weather discomfort.

So I decided to fire up the Way Back Machine and travel back to the summers of my youth, when hot temperatures were welcomed, not feared.

Most vivid are those days when, yes, it was only WARM for us all.

Of course, I’m referring to WARM, the Mighty 590 — the AM radio king of the 1960s airwaves.

Back then, WARM at its peak had a share of more than 50% of the audience. It brought Wilkes-Barre/Scranton together as “WARMland” and everyone remembers that famous catchphrase — “It’s only WARM for me.”

Just about every transistor radio owned by just about everybody under 25 back then was tuned to WARM. And with the hazy, hot and humid weather we’re about to experience, those of the older generations really do long for the days when it was only WARM for us.

I recall those sunny weekends when we would head out to Harveys Lake and Sandy Beach with our towels and transistor radios and everybody there was listening to WARM.

Yes, it was hot, but for kids, it really was only WARM for us.

The heat never seemed to bother us back then. Our cars had no air conditioning — we just rolled the windows down or put the top down on our convertibles. The warm breeze was enough to cool us off.

At home, we had fans in the windows that circulated the air. Screen doors were mandatory. And, we never complained.

When we were kids, my pals and I lived for those sunny, hot days. We would play ball, hike, play games and then top it off with a swim before we went to our Little League games.

But we are older now, and we seem to be much more intolerable of hot weather than I remember from my younger days. I recall heading to the Jersey shore almost every weekend to frolic in the sun and carouse at night.

These days, I say I love the beach — except for the sand and saltwater. And a few bad experiences with high waves have lessened my level of affection for the beach.

When I go to the shore now, I visit Wildwood — our old stomping grounds — and I head to Cape May for scallops at Mayer’s — the best I’ve ever had.

But to be honest, I always preferred Sandy Beach at Harveys Lake over the Jersey shore — fresh water over salt water, and a half-hour drive over three hours.

Even at the shore, I preferred to hang out at the roof-top swimming pool at the motel rather than on the beach.

These days, I’d rather enjoy the great outdoors from inside my air-conditioned car or through the windows of my air-conditioned home.

Look, 90-plus degrees and high humidity just aren’t for me.

And when I think about the 1960s, I remember the days when we first heard those awesome songs, and I remember how back in the day we enjoyed the Lake, the Shore, the music and the Mighty 590 AM playing hit after hit.

Even with temperatures in the 90s, those memories warm my heart.

There were so many great groups with great songs — the Beatles, of course; the Rolling Stones; Kinks; Animals; Beach Boys; America; Poco; Zombies; Yardbirds; Sly & the Family Stone; Hollies; Crosby, Still & Nash; Buffalo Springfield; Mamas & Papas; Janis Joplin; The Doors; The Who; The Byrds; The Four Seasons; Jefferson Airplane; The Temptations; The Four Tops; Led Zeppelin; The Youngbloods; The Supremes and more.

And we not only remember the bands and the songs, but we somehow can remember the words to those songs — well, almost all the words.

To hear all this music for the first time ever was an experience I will always cherish.

And I will sing along in my air conditioned car or home and keep those warm feelings in my heart. Because those songs are so cool, man.

Even if the temperature outside is hot, hot, hot.