Summer

Millie Trivett found relief from July's heat wave by sleeping in front of a fan in the living room of her Baltimore Avenue home. The summer of '95 was the hottest on record in Philadelphia, claiming 88 lives in the city and its suburbs in a 25-day period. A break in the heat finally came on Aug. 5.

Along the Boardwalk in Atlantic City, people take advantage of the traditional treats of summer, enthusiastically eating ice cream and ices and downing cold drinks. Although the temperature at the resort peaked at 85 yesterday, a southerly wind kept conditions pleasant.

Payton Faries, 5, cools her feet in the water at Penn's Landing during the 13th annual Jam on the River. Tonight, blues singers Koko Taylor and Ruth Brown will be featured, along with the music of Buckwheat Zydeco to welcome summer to the city.

Summer is the season you remember. Who remembers winter, really? Unless there was a blizzard, and you got into a fight over the legality of whether two wobbly kitchen chairs and a broom constitute a reserved parking space, in which case you'd rather forget winter anyway. Spring is fine, especially when you catch an unexpected whiff of lilac on a soft breeze. And autumn is spectacular, until those golden maple leaves lose their brilliance and clog your gutters. But summer is the season that creates warm memories.

"Top Gun' outgunned the competition at the box office this summer in a season that ended with a total of $1.4 billion in ticket sales, down 1 percent from last summer's less-than-stellar level. This summer was the first in this decade without a George Lucas or Steven Spielberg extravaganza and it had no smashes in the $150 million range. "Top Gun" grossed $119 million in the season, which runs from May 23 through Sept. 1. (Before May 23, "Top Gun" grossed an additional $12.2 million.

It was muggy and hot yesterday, but that didn't deter families from heading to Cooper River Park in Pennsauken to celebrate Father's Day.

Tell us about a summer vacation disaster you or your family has experienced. Send essays of about 150 words by June 9, including a phone number for verification, to Voices/Vacations, The Inquirer, Box 41705, Philadelphia, Pa. 19101. Send e-mail to inquirer.letters@phillynews.com and faxes to 215-854-4483. Questions? Call Kevin Ferris, readers' editor, at 215-854-4543.

Her show name was Summer, but she was a woman for all seasons. To Craig Rabinowitz, a Main Line husband and father accused in his wife's murder last week, the flaxen-haired beauty was the only exotic dancer he had eyes for at the upscale Delilah's Den, a topless "gentleman's club" on Spring Garden Street near the waterfront. Summer was his private dancer, and his obsession. And in return for her attentions in a tucked-away corner of the club's private Champagne Court, he lavished her with tips that in a few afternoons a week piled $1,000 to $3,000 onto his already overloaded credit cards and mounds of debt.

Almost every school marks the final day of classes in some special manner, and the teenagers from John W. Hallahan Catholic Girls High School are no exception. Each year, the students from the Center City school commemorate the year's end by flocking to nearby Logan Square. There, they take a ceremonial dip in Swann Fountain. Yesterday's weather, warm and sunny, provided a promising preview to what the rest of the summer may bring. And it gave the girls an added reason to cool off in the waters.

Kids splashing in the fountain pools at the Art Museum is a pretty good sign summer has arrived in Philadelphia - in spirit, at least, even if it's officially a month away. Yesterday the thermometer climbed to 90 degrees under sunny skies and lured these guys to the cool water. A high in the South will keep the heat and humidity in our area today, with a high near 90 again and the possibility of scattered thunderstorms. Weather details Page 18