The Summer When Sunstroke Became Heatstroke

Heatstroke alerts and the 'sunstroke' of those days

There is a heatstroke alert out today.
I'm almost out of detergent. I only have about 2 millimeters of soy sauce left, too. I have to go shopping. I dread going outside.
I'm drinking beer while watching the heated World Cup final, so I feel even more like lazing around. I might not be able to go outside until this evening.

At some point, 'High Temperature Warnings' changed to 'Heatstroke Alerts.' I believe the name was revamped during the COVID-19 pandemic when we were spending so much time at home. I remember starting to commute to the office after the pandemic ended and having conversations like, 'There's a heatstroke alert out again today, huh?'

Heatstroke.
It's a word that didn't exist when I was a child.
What I knew was 'sunstroke'.
Collapsing after being exposed to strong sunlight for a long time, or getting dehydrated, dizzy, or having a headache from playing or participating in club activities without wearing a hat.
There were kids who would suddenly say, 'My head hurts,' and go home while playing outside, or kids who would be carried to the infirmary during club activities.

The midsummer school grounds

During summer vacation, in addition to us in the track and field club, the baseball, rugby, and soccer clubs all used the same grounds. We all practiced until we were tanned, with balls flying around and us nearly bumping into each other. Back then, the grounds were packed. I wonder how many students were actually out there.

I spent almost all of my summer vacation outside, but fortunately, I never got sunstroke.

When I recall the scenery of summer, I think of the sound of cicadas buzzing. The deep blue sky. The bleached-out grounds and the fading white lines. My own short shadow. They were all shimmering beyond the heat haze.

I can't believe now that we used to run around the grounds without even wearing hats.

The basketball and kendo clubs practicing in the gym also looked hot. It seems that when practicing in a gym that felt like a steam bath, the scorching outdoors actually felt cool. Both high school and junior high students would be sprawled out on the wooden slats next to the gym.

Were those kinds of practices possible back then because the temperatures were lower than they are now?

8x4 or Ban?

When club activities ended in the morning, we would change and spray 8x4 all over our bodies.
Even though it was an antiperspirant spray, we had a tendency to believe it could even cancel out the sweat we had already produced.
The choices back then were 8x4 or Ban. Powder sprays were more popular than roll-ons. There was a wide variety of scents, and we used them as if we were choosing a fragrance.
In the locker room, everyone would be spraying away. Spraying so much that it would get smoky white for a moment. That was quite a smell, wasn't it? (laughs)

The girls who used the pink floral scent somehow had the image of being 'very feminine.' I used the yellow 8x4. I wonder if it was lemon.

A small pleasure of summer vacation

Maybe because we had summer classes, there were air-conditioned classrooms where we would gather to eat our packed lunches, and we would stop by a convenience store on the way home. It was a treat to occasionally go as far as a Blue Seal ice cream shop.
On days when I had extra pocket money, I'd get Italian gelato.

On days when it was still hot even after eating ice cream, I would stop by the station building on my way home to look at accessories and stationery, or cool off by reading books at the bookstore.
These scenes are my memories of summer vacation as a middle and high school student from the 80s to the 90s.

The beginning of a dangerous summer

Nearly 40 years have passed since then.
Now that I'm 51, I even hesitate to go to the supermarket during the day.
If I go right when it opens at 9:30, can I still handle it?
The heated World Cup matches are over, but the dangerous summer is just getting started.
Come to think of it, is the rainy season ending today?