I’ve sometimes wondered what the sweatiest, smelliest period of history was.

Yes, I ponder some weird things on occasion.

Was it the Middle Ages, when sanitation was non-existent and bathing was infrequent? The Old West, when cowboys rode the range, worked alongside stinky animals and only washed up when they came to town once a month?

Maybe some godforsaken war, when soliders were stuck on the front line or in muddy trenches for weeks at a time?

Whatever your answer, the summer of 2023 might rival any of them.

We’re currently at what appears to be the tail end of our second major heat wave in the past six weeks. The temperature has been near, at, or over 100 degrees for about 10 days straight. According to the TV weather folks, we went four years in Central Mississippi without a 100-degree day and then had four in less than a week. Next Thursday’s forecast high of 92 will have us breaking out sweatshirts.

With all of that heat and humidity comes sweat. Buckets and buckets of sweat. Literally. While I haven’t done this experiment, I’m pretty sure I could wring out a shirt and fill a bucket after 45 minutes outside.

The other day I washed the car in the evening and my T-shirt was soaked. I don’t think a single drop was from the water hose. An hour later I went to talk to a neighbor by the fence and could feel the sweat percolating through my pores after just a few minutes.

Walking outside the past few days has been like getting into a hot car before the air conditioning kicks in, except the entire Earth is the hot car.

Of course, this is summertime so no matter how many heat warnings are issued it’s hard to hunker down inside all day. There are hedges to trim, cars to wash and sports to be played.

Football season is fast approaching. The MAIS softball and soccer seasons have already begun. A little 100-degree heat isn’t going to slow down that march, so we endure and find ways to cope.

At the St. Al-Riverfield softball game Thursday evening a couple of fans, surely inspired by “The Simpsons” villain Montgomery Burns, erected awnings big enough to block out the sun over the entire home plate area. Several industrial-strength fans helped blow the hot air around. Wandering over to start a conversation with one of the fan-bringers was both a good social and survival move.

Mostly, though, everyone had to slog through it and question a few life choices. Even though it was a fast game, completed in about two hours, it made me long for the days when the MAIS had a 1 hour, 15 minute time limit for its softball games.

If only heat waves had a time limit as well.

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Ernest Bowker is the sports editor of The Vicksburg Post. He can be reached at ernest.bowker@vicksburgpost.com