Summertime and the living is easy.

And hot!

One has to wonder what songwriters George Gershwin and DuBose Heyward were thinking in 1935 when they wrote one of most popular songs in American music history, but it’s obvious they weren’t living in the south when they did.

The southern summer and heat has been the topic of Broadway plays and Hollywood movies for years, but the summer heat we’ve been experiencing is no laughing matter.

Blame it on global warming, southern tradition or whatever you wish, the rising temperatures and high humidity, a combination known in meteorological circles as the “heat index,” are causing great discomfort and concern among us all, especially those who must work outside on a daily basis.

And it is dangerous.

As southerners, we like to say we are accustomed to the heat and humidity, but if we want to be truthful, no one is accustom to the combination of heat and moisture we have annually in the south. We know the truth the first time we walk out of our air-conditioned homes and into the inferno and when we begin to feel like we just stepped out of a shower.

And the chances of us having some type of medical emergency increases for us and our children the longer we stay outside unless we’re able to find some way to stay cool or at least replace the fluids we sweat way.

We try all kinds of gimmick solutions to beat the heat, and in the process forget that common sense is our best weapon against dehydration and heat stroke in these hot temperatures.

Common sense.

It’s the one solution we don’t use until we’ve gotten ourselves sick from the heat and find ourselves at the doctor’s office or the emergency room with extreme sunburn or the beginnings of heat stroke.

So maybe, with this first blast from the furnace, we need to be reminded of the basic common sense rules, the first being to stay, as they say now, hydrated. That’s the solution your mother would tell you in the summer, “Drink plenty of water.”

Next, if you can, avoid the heat during the hottest period of the day, like early afternoon. Wear loose clothing that will keep you cool, and wear a hat to protect your head and provide some shade.

And don’t forget the elderly. Make sure the older people you know have working fans and air conditioning so they can keep cool as the temperatures rise.

Dealing with the heat is an age-old battle we southerners have been fighting for a long time and will continue to fight for a lot longer. But if we can use a little common sense and remember what we were told growing up about staying cool and drinking water, we might be able to make it through another summer without a lot of sickness and tragedy.

And quite possibly make the living easy.