We all felt sadness when he approached the so-called End of Fresco. With the arrival of September, the neighbors agreed on a day to say goodbye to the cool nights... and summer. We set up a very, very long table in the middle of the street, we brought tortillas and michirones, and we tried to take advantage of that night because it would not return to repeat until the following year.
Pilar, Barrio de la Ermita, Mazarrón (Murcia).
Chair waiting for the sun to go down and start another cool night (Sayago, Zamora).
Watcher behind the sudoku, Paquita waits on the first chair . Sagrario looks out the window and picks up the hanging clothes as an excuse. "You'll tend later!". A neighbor, and another, until the huddle shelters five ladies and their husbands. At 9 at night it cools down, but a paipai never hurts.
Justina's grandson does not take long to appear, Head down, typing on the phone. "This child needs to eat more." Someone opens the shutter to fry an egg with the impetus of a gladiator in baby Paquita's granddaughter gets off her boyfriend's motorcycle. Justina knows that Diego has another girlfriend, but she keeps quiet. "It's been a good time" she says she.
"The missing day" “butane cooking is better”, “before there was no red earth” or an intense “AND I TOLD HIM”. There are many typical fillers, so darlings, floating every summer in the streets of many towns and neighborhoods of our country, especially by the sea and where the heat is pressing. From Cadiz Algar to Jávea, in Alicante; from Mallorca to Cordovan Espejo, passing through a district of Murcia or El Cabanyal in Valencia, there are as many rituals as warm conversations.
Sunset in Altea.
Surely many of you remember those summer nights , with plastic Coca Cola chairs ready to hit the streets. And the coolers of beach, so many games of parcheesi or an ability to collect information from each portal as a vintage Pegasus. Cool nights are part of our cultural heritage , today limited by the prohibitions of some municipalities and the rise of social networks. But maybe we'll have one. last chance to make fashionable a ritual that never tasted so much like freedom and reconnection.
RUNS OF LIFE
I remember my grandfather had a black drum very big (when you grow up and see it again, it seems small to you, but for me it was huge!) he filled it with water in the morning and left it in the sun. In the evening before dinner he bathed me there, with the water burning, on that lot, seeing the stars and hearing from afar forks, plates and glasses collide with each other while the residents of the urbanization prepared their tables to dine al fresco.
Jessica, an urbanization next to the Palmeral de Ferris (Torrevieja).
Any support is valid . Our grandparents had those typical blue-striped hammocks, plastic chairs donated by Pepe, the one from the bar next door, or even a picnic bench. The scenario can be any . The sidewalk is always the right place, but some go to the beach to play bingo, and even millennials We share a small balcony with our boho plants and watered glasses of Blancauva from Mercadona. We still dare not go down the sidewalk to the sidewalk because the world seems to us a more hostile place than in childhood.
And playing one of Los Chichos…
and the conversation : Is it still customary to talk about the neighbor's upcoming wedding or how strong Sole's cousin is? Of course! But without malice, and leaving room for the important issues: the laws of equality, the infamous wars or even our own. As the night progresses, the bottles are finished, longings are talked about or we look to the sky to wish on a shooting star. Without tweet neither matches.
Music plays maybe a rumba of Los Chichos or something by Kate Bush, which bad bunny We already heard it even in the fish market. “My heart is happy”, your grandmother sang, while in the background the echo of the cicadas and the waves whispering in some streets that seemed more ours than now could be heard. We liked to climb the walls , play tile wolf and come back to eat the sandwich, two-color Nocilla, ham or even bread with wine. Today we have stuffed olives, Hindus at home and Takis Fuego.
Although if we think about it, we have already spent too much time on the balconies. It may be too bold, but we can always take the chairs and go out to the goal . Next door, the neighbor talks with her friends and there, further on, Michael's Irish pub has used the sidewalk to place the terrace every summer. urban planning and tourism they slowly gobble up that tradition.
Cool talks.
FRESH NIGHTS, THE CUSTOM THAT SURVIVES
My father used to go out to read the newspaper and then all the neighbors went down and the children went to play. At night, we ate sardines or shared a stew in an old pot. Every afternoon, my father gave us the pay and we children lined up: he gave the rest of the children a penny, and my brother and me, two duros or one duro if we had wet the bed.
Luis, Huerto Paco neighborhood (Huelva)
Cool nights may turn out an irrelevant topic compared to other problems that the world is going through. However, talking about this tradition means talking about the threat that urban planning of coastal areas supposed to perpetuate old customs and lifestyles.
Today, there is a great tropicana hotel in the middle of a fishing neighborhood and the streets are cut off preventing the exit of the neighbors in favor of the cars. Fortunately, many municipalities have favored the presence of this custom during the last few years, especially during the pandemic.
The alfresco nights also include chess games (al fresco).
Last year, the Valencian town of Cullera passed article 8 of your mobility ordinance. This law contemplates the custom of nights in the cool as a "historical tradition" and, therefore, allow the neighbors occupy part of the sidewalks of the public road in the streets with reduced sidewalks and little traffic, both vehicles and pedestrians.
Something similar happened in the Valencian town of streets , where also in 2021 the circulation of cars was prohibited between 9:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. in certain streets of the town so that all the neighbors can enjoy the cool.
Nor do we forget the initiative of the Cadiz town of Algar in Cadiz, whose mayor proposed turning the "fresh nights" into a candidate for Intangible Heritage of Humanity in August 2021.
There is popular cry to revive ancient customs that should not be missed. Because during cool nights life stops to make way for memory. A feeling of community that does not exist in WhatsApp groups and always gives a hand on the knee, a communal look or the act of confessing to your neighbor's granddaughter to leave her boyfriend once and for all. Who knew that sitting in a plastic chair could be the best way to resume life.