By SAM HATCHER

With the passing of Memorial Day weekend and high school graduations on the immediate calendar ahead, the long hot days of summer are near.

Our preview for what’s ahead, based on the temperatures over the past few days, is not so appealing.

Three days of record heat were recorded over Memorial Day weekend with mercury readings reaching into the mid-90s.

Like a giant warning sign we’re being given a message that the days of summer are upon us.

Tennessee’s summer heat can be like no other. High humidity combined with unbearably high temperatures serve as a basis for heat-related illnesses, exhaustion, and in some cases can be life threatening.

A couple or so years ago I crossed an elderly man one June afternoon.

It was in the middle of the day, pretty close to the hottest part of the day, as I recalled.

It was hot. Very hot.

Our conversation was brief, a typical exchange about the weather.

I said something like . . . “it’s a hot one today.”

And his response was . . . “yeah, I’d say the Lord has it set on cremate.”