thinking about summer

My brother and I used to play a game at the pool. I would stand at the water’s edge while he teetered at the end of the low-dive.

“Name of a…,” I would start, pausing while he bounced into the air.

“Peanut butter!” I’d yell.

The smart thing for him to do would be to yell back, “Jif!” before he hit the water, but if he hesitated or thought first of Peter Pan, he’d never get it out in time.

We took turns, and did this with all kinds of categories: trees, Beatles songs, the names of kids in our classes. But mostly it was brand names. All of those t.v. commercials we’d absorbed had to pay off somehow.