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Cooler heads prevail to escape Dallas heat Leah Smith/NABJ Convention Online Staff Brian Higgins of Brian Higgins Ice Carving doesn't break a sweat as he sculpts a reindeer for a summer party. By CHARLI PENN Monitor Staff Some people wear hats. Others down frozen margaritas. Many simply take cover in the nearest shopping mall. But it takes a lot more than a pair of shades and a bottle of water to beat the heat in Dallas. Sweltering temperatures in Dallas routinely creep over the 100-degree mark during the summer. The city provides lots of cool alternatives to a scorching day, including ice-skating rinks, swimming pools, extended happy hours at air-conditioned bars and a wealth of shopping centers. But not everyone can easily escape the heat. It gives a whole new meaning to “a hard day’s work” for homeless street minister Phil Palner. Palner, 48, glides through the West End every day on a blue 10-speed bike with a license plate that reads “Jesus” and an old metal basket filled with small Bibles and a stack of the latest edition of Endless Choices, a monthly publication for the homeless. Palner and three other men alternate shifts selling the paper. He works the hottest part of the day, arriving at his first post by 11 a.m. He says having a great hat is the trick. Palner has his favorite green hat to thank for keeping him calm and cool. “My hat has it covered,” says Palner. “It’s doing all the work. I’m just standing here.” But sometimes even the best hat is no match for 104-degree heat with humidity. In those situations, Palner says, he just gives up his post and follows the shade. Michelle Jinks, a management assistant who has lived in Dallas her entire life, says she would rather avoid the heat whenever possible. She opts to spend her lunch break reclining in a manicure chair at a downtown spa rather than on a hot bench under little shade with co-workers in the courtyard near her office. “I just don’t go outside unless I have to,” says Jinks. “Unless I’m taking my kids out, I just stay in the house.” During the week Jinks and her daughters indulge in frozen treats and play only games that allow them to stay inside their air-conditioned home. Her children eagerly await the weekend-a chance to escape to Six Flags Hurricane Harbor, a nearby water park. A cashier at a downtown convenience store follows the cool. “We AC hop,” says Chalfront Hopkins. “If there’s AC blasting, then you go there.” Hopkins says bars downtown draw a huge after-work crowd. Hordes of people avoid rush-hour traffic on area freeways or the DART light rail by waiting for the sun to go down. “Who wants to walk to the train in this heat?” says Hopkins. “You gotta wait until the ground cools down before you try to travel on it.” The store where Hopkins works sells out of bottled water by 2 p.m. each day. Temperatures beyond 100 degrees will have most people reaching for their shorts and tanks. But for Renaissance Tower Building manager Ken Jenkins, corporate dress codes won’t allow those legs to show. Jenkins says he wears linen and other lightweight fabrics, and keeps a fresh water bottle on hand at all times. But unlike Jinks and her family, Jenkins refuses to run from the sauna-style atmosphere outside his window. He says you just have to find a way to enjoy the heat. On the weekends he travels 40 miles north of Dallas to Lewisville Lake, where he waits patiently on the dock for a fish to grab his bait while he kicks back and turns the pages of his latest summer read. |
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